What is community informatics?: a global and empirical answer
Pages 598 - 600
Abstract
Various definitions of community informatics have been advanced [1, 2, 3], each relatively prescriptive but all centered on the interaction between local, historical community and either information or information technology. The IT revolution continues to unfold and intersect in new ways with local communities, leaving the field in a state of flux. We are carrying out a systematic collection and analysis of the literature in order to obtain an empirical (rather than prescriptive) definition of the field. Moreover, librarians and LIS scholars participated in early "community information systems" work [4, 5], but what role do they play today? To the best of our abilities, we are seeking global rather than country-bounded answers, and we invite others to join us in order to complete this task.
References
[1]
Gurstein, M. 2000. Community informatics enabling communities with information and communications technologies. Hershey, Pa. Idea Group Pub., 2000.
[2]
Keeble, L. and Loader, B. 2001. Community informatics: shaping computer-mediated social relations. Routledge, New York, 2001.
[3]
Williams, K. and Durrance, J. C. 2009. Community Informatics. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Marcia Bates and Mary Miles Maack, editors, 2009.
[4]
Cisler, S. Ties that bind: Community networking (conf. proceedings); March 2, 1995.
[5]
Bishop, A. P. Emerging communities: integrating networked information into library services. In Proceedings of the 1993 Clinic on Library Applications of Data Process. Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994.
[6]
T. T. Sreekumar. 2011. Mobile Phones and the Cultural Ecology of Fishing in Kerala, India. The Information Society. Vol 27 (3). 2011), 172--180.
[7]
Williams, K. & Alkalimat, A. 2008. Cyberpower. Pattern Language for Communication Revolution. Doug Schuler, editor. MIT Press.
[8]
Kvasny, L. 2006. Cultural (re) production of digital inequality in a US community technology initiative. Information, Communication and Society, Information, Communication & Society, Vol. 9 (2). 2006. 160--181
[9]
Alkalimat, A., & Williams, K. 2001. Social Capital and Cyberpower in the African American Community: A Case Study of a Community Technology Center in the Dual City. In L. Keeble and B. Loader (editors), Community Informatics: Community Development Through the Use of Information and Communications Technologies. London: Routledge,
[10]
Coleman, J. S. 1988. Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital. The American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95--S120.
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Association for Computing Machinery
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Published: 07 February 2012
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