What is Community Networking?

7:00 class

• Who I am and why I'm here

  • how I found out about community networking
  • first-hand experience: how to get it
  • what's in it for you?
  • what's in it for me?

• perceived need: community decay

  • quote from Schuler (p.4) about Mythic American Main Street
  • technology as a destabilizing influence -- night shifts, telephone, radio, TV

• historical solutions

  • public libraries -- promote democracy by making information available to all, free of charge, and provide a shared space for learning
  • community centers -- provide a shared space for socializing and advertising upcoming events
  • public broadcasting -- originally "educational broadcasting" with lecture classes to be used in schools, later emphasis on news and non-commercial entertainment
  • Citizens' Band (CB) radio -- cheap way for anyone to communicate at a distance with one or more others; popular in rural areas, but largely replaced by cellular phones
  • public-access cable -- allows anyone with the necessary skills to produce a TV show for the local public, but technical skill and expense are major obstacles, and not everyone receives cable

• computer-mediated communication (CMC)

  • electronic mail -- originally created to allow military researchers to share information, e-mail allows almost instantaneous, asynchronous (i.e. both people don't have to be available at the same time) communication
  • bulletin boards (a.k.a. conferences) -- like shared e-mailboxes, bulletin boards allow any user to "post" a message which a number of other people can then read, so entire meetings and conversations can be moved online
  • interactive chat -- two or more people communicate synchronously; everything each one types immediately appears on the screens of the others
  • Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) -- inexpensive software available in the 1980s allows anyone with a personal computer and a modem to provide CMC to anyone else who has a computer and modem
  • newsgroups -- like conferences, except archived on multiple servers so that if any one server breaks down, the newsgroup continues unaffected
  • Fidonet -- in the late 1980s, BBSes all over the world cooperate to share e-mail and newsgroups ... by calling each other long-distance
  • the Internet -- a permanent network of computer networks allows anyone with a computer and modem to use CMC very quickly and inexpensively with anyone else in the world

• CMC as compared to other media

  • face-to-face interaction -- CMC allows less non-verbal communication (and therefore more frequent miscommunication) and requires more knowledge and skill
  • paper -- e-mail is much faster than postal mail and often more reliable but less permanent; people often print their e-mail to keep a record
  • telephone -- CMC allows less non-verbal communication than even the telephone, but it is more permanent and asynchronous
  • fax -- e-mail is almost exactly like a fax, but the receiver's equipment need not be turned on at the time the message is sent, and e-mail leaves no paper record unless printed; conferences are unlike broadcast faxes in that only one copy of the message exists
  • bulletin boards -- real bulletin boards quickly become cluttered; electronic conferences allow multiple separate conversations, are automatically cleaned, and can be searched for key words
  • broadcasting -- unlike a broadcasting station, CMC is interactive: a "viewer" can "broadcast" a response

• "community network" is an ambiguous term

  • people have social "networks" already: who to talk to about what
  • computer networks are usually connected all the time, not temporarily like BBSes
  • Free-Nets -- BBSes which offer free access to CMC, run on voluntary contributions and grants, and were affiliated with NPTN
  • civic networks -- Web sites on the Internet, funded by local government to provide local information and inexpensive Web pages for nonprofit organizations; generally not interactive
  • wired cities -- attempt to get as many computers in town as possible physically on the Internet and then encourage access to local information; best example is Blacksburg Electronic Village
  • inter-city networks -- literally "community networks" -- rural communities networked to each other with fiberoptic cable, primarily for distance learning and telemedicine

• CNs as compared to the Internet and online services

  • the Internet is "distributed" -- it has no center and no location, therefore any community formed there is "virtual" (not geographical)
  • commercial "online services" (e.g. America Online, Compuserve, Microsoft Network, Prodigy) are centralized, but generally try to get a nationwide or worldwide usership, so community is as "virtual" as that on the Internet
  • exceptions: many CNs (notably Cleveland Free-Net) have become Internet destinations, and the WELL (a commercial online service) has maintained a local (San Francisco) flavor
  • virtual communities have some advantages, primarily stability

• potential benefits of CNs

  • teledemocracy -- a variety of views can be made freely available to all, resulting in an informed populace
  • education -- exposure to information encourages learning, so if academic information is supplied, theoretically people will learn it; also, CMC is a relatively painless way to learn to use computers
  • community development -- when people come together on a CN, they meet neighbors they might not otherwise have met and make new friendships as well as functional relationships
  • equal opportunity through anonymity -- if no one can see that you're a member of a minority group, you may be treated more fairly than in face-to-face interaction
  • economic development -- small businesses can use a CN to advertise just as well as larger stores can; also, the presence of a CN may boost demand for computer products and services
  • quality entertainment -- conferences are generally "moderated" (politely censored), so most conversations are suitable for all ages

• Who uses CNs, and why?

  • teenagers -- technology is "cool," nobody can tell how young they are, and a computer can often react more quickly than people do in face-to-face interaction
  • minorities and the handicapped -- people who can't get out in public or prefer not to do so because of disabilities or physical appearance can use CMC with much less fear of discrimination
  • the poor -- in cities with an aggressive community-outreach program and easily accessible public terminals, the poor and even homeless have been known to use CNs to their advantage
  • government officials -- CNs provide another way to receive feedback from (the educated portion of) the voting public
  • nonprofit organizations and small businesses -- CNs provide an inexpensive or totally free way to advertise services
  • young white males -- in spite of free service and anonymity, the majority of CN users tend to be the most advantaged members of society who face the least discrimination and are able to pay for a commercial service

• Community Networking Rule #1: a CN must arise from the community itself, not from outside it.