1 Broadband data search & virtual community September 24, 2009

2 1. What is Community Informatics CI: the study or practice regarding the continuity of local, historical communities meeting the transformation of information technologies Libraries by reinventing themselves (I&R, job centers, OPACs) invented community networks (made of silicon- plus-carbon) From social informatics comes three key ideas: network society, hacker ethic, and digital divide …the LOCAL community is the central focus here

3 2. Community: ‘Race’, place and history 1.Science says, One race, the human race. Our species has always migrated, our differences are within group not between group. No one trait is found across a group. 2.Racism is real … What to do? Stay educated (on past, present, future) … Practice diversity in curriculum, profession, library 3.Class: an emergent phenomenon, as well as a categorical or positional reality, thanks to techno-economic changes 4.Root Shock: Severing people’s connections to places. “The traumatic stress reaction to destruction of one’s emotional ecosystem.” Mass upheavals have ripple effect. Solution: Acknowledge. Create healing places. Displacement the 21 st C problem. 5.‘Damned by ourselves, saved by community.’

4 3. Dig Div, Community as network 1.Dig Div: a fxn of the information revolution. Persistent, multidimensional & changing. CI solutions mean a) communities not individuals b) seeking sustainability 2.Society ≠ Individuals … Society = Ties ! 3.Wellman/Leighton: Urbanization brings… Community found/strong nhood networks? Community lost/no networks? Community liberated/metropolitan networks? [Q: where do space and time go in SN theory?] 4.Coleman: Closed networks build social capital So do open networks! e.g. Murchison Center

5 groups as nodes strong & weak ties… dense and sparse networks 3a. Network models

6 4. UC2B UC2B: 36 million in stimulus/other funds. 2 cities + univ. Fiber laid across cities, 100 Mbps to 137 critical anchor institutions, 5 Mbps to homes in 12 low- broadband census tracts. Above ground, support for broadband adoption. UC2B Above Ground, 3+ years, guided by GSLIS: public computing centers boosted or established 2.Mad Lab in N Champaign (Music Access Digitization), HQ for community helpdesk, 14 outreach/support staff 3.17 cybernavigators serving 46 ctrs + 12 sectors serving low income people (health, ed, libs, homeless, seniors, women, disabled, safety, churches, comm ctrs, media/culture) 4.Three course sequence for 50 UI/Parkland/high school students, public video Broadband 101 spring: what’s it all about Broadband 102 summer: paid broadband internships Broadband 103 fall: community-serving bband entrepreneurship, $50K in awards 5.UC2B’s community helpdesk 6.Community advisory committee, research advisory committee, PCCNet 7.Community first, technology second (CI approach) Similarly nationwide ; nat’l bband plan by Feb 2010; broadband.govbroadband.gov

7 4a. Community and disaster: recap to come Link to entire UC2B application on City of Champaign site:

8 Agenda Your community in cyberspace may be the same or different as the actual community? Does this matter? Next assignment: Computer Learning Month Virtual community: Wikipedia and the WELL –590CO: Eric on Lih and Andrew on Rheingold –590COL: Marcela on Lih and Nancy on Rheingold