Community Informatics and Geographic Community Development Tamara Barker Drexel University INFO-782-900 Winter 2010 Instructor: M. Carl Drott Community Informatics and Geographic Community Development INFO 782-900 Tamara Barker Winter 2010 Abstract Do information and communications systems have a role in geographic community development or is their use being over-sold by sociologists and non-governmental organizations? This paper explores current uses of community informatics, their impacts on the geographic communities to which their usage is applied, various perspectives on the systems used, and design and implementation policies surrounding their use. Research findings indicate that successful implementation is possible but also reveal many challenges to community informatics application. Cooperation between volunteer groups, social agencies, governments and other concerned parties is important to ensuring community informatics success. Introduction In the most basic sense of the word, a community is defined as “a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage” (Community). Yet, there is more to a community than simply their shared location and heritage. From a social viewpoint, community includes people’s interactions with each other, their sense of belonging, and their common goals. For many years now, groups that regularly work together to enable geographic community development have sought to enable community members in meeting their common goals and bringing about improvements to communities by incorporating community information and communications technologies (ICTs) into their development toolset. This use of ICTs to advance the economic and social status of geographic communities has become known by academics during the last decade as “community informatics”, although the field of practice is more mature. Community informatics has been described as: “… a technology strategy or discipline which links economic and social development efforts at the community level with emerging opportunities in such areas as electronic commerce, community and civic networks and telecentres, electronic democracy and on-line participation, self-help and virtual health communities, advocacy, cultural enhancement, and others” (Pitkin, 2001, p. 1). Many advocates of community informatics feel that by developing community ICTs (C- ICTs) they are improving the lives of all members of the community and providing the underprivileged members of the community, or underprivileged communities themselves, the information and communications tools they need in order to be as successful as the more privileged members or communities. Some researchers, however, feel that even in helping the underprivileged narrow the so-called “digital divide” – the gap between those who have access to ICTs and the World Wide Web and Page 1 of 11 Community Informatics and Geographic Community Development INFO 782-900 Tamara Barker Winter 2010 those who do not – the elite are really the class that is being helped. In addition, those who practice community informatics grapple with educating those people who believe that technology equals information and do not understand the call for needs assessments to determine just what C-ICTs are required and how best to implement them (Stoecker, 2005, p. 17). The Impact of ICTs on Work within Communities The goal of community informatics is simple enough: enable all members of a community through access to information. In practice, though, the challenge is much more complex. The needs of each individual and, in fact, each community are different. During emergencies - global (consider 9/11/2001 and the impact to foreign travelers and Canadian air traffic controllers of the USA closing its airspace), national (consider the UK epidemic of Foot and Mouth Disease in 2001), or local (consider earthquakes, floods, natural gas leaks, or major police activities) - communities need a way to relate crucial information to their members. During the 9/11 crisis, Canada closed their own airspace to all but incoming international flights plus outgoing police, military and humanitarian flights. Their air traffic controllers then used their ICTs, including both high-tech radar systems and low- tech flight management boards, to coordinate the over 200 international flights that came in at a rate of one to two planes per minute. As the planes landed and frightened and confused passengers disembarked, airports and their regional cities coordinated processing of the passengers and emergency shelter and provisions. Without ICTs, planes may have crashed due to so many being so close to each other in the effort to land all of them. And without internet access and ICTs, friends and relatives of those on the diverted planes wouldn’t have known where their loved ones ended up or if their planes had crashed, and Canadian community efforts to assist the displaced travelers would not have been as successful as they were (Operation Yellow Ribbon). During the 2001 UK epidemic of Foot and Mouth Disease, farmers in rural communities suffered from a lack of information as well as from the effects of the disease on their cattle. This has been cited as one of the main reasons for the large scale to which the outbreak progressed. Communities, and farmers in particular, had difficulties planning their own strategies because they lacked information about the UK government’s strategy or had conflicting information about the disease and its management. Additionally, farmers who suspected their cattle were suffering from the disease were told to post keep-out signs and essentially isolate themselves from the community, which led to further lack of information due to lack of internet access in most rural areas. One successful C-ICT implementation during the epidemic was the Pentalk Network, established in the UK community of Cumbria to provide the isolated farmers in that community with computers and training on how to access information online regarding the disease and the government’s response. This also provided the participating farmers with communications access to other farmers and to the outside world, Page 2 of 11 Community Informatics and Geographic Community Development INFO 782-900 Tamara Barker Winter 2010 providing them with much-needed personal interaction and the ability to coordinate their strategies among their communities even though they could not physically gather to discuss the issues. Ultimately, the Pentalk Network also led to a greater sense of community among its users as they realized the benefits of sharing information online (Hagar, 2004). During local emergencies, communities with ICTs and internet access use these technologies to disseminate information regarding the emergency and recovery tactics, to enable volunteer mobilization, to provide evacuee services, and to provide community members with a way to notify each other of their location and safety. Often, grass-roots organizations establish such emergency C-ICTs before the local government does, due partly to the bureaucratic red-tape involved for governments and partly to the fact that local governments are fixated at the time – rightfully so, in my opinion - on dealing with the crisis at hand, rather than establishing information and communication networks. This can lead to conflicts between the volunteers and the governmental bodies and emphasizes the need for disaster plans which include the development of C-ICTs before the disaster need arises and the coordinated use of such C-ICTs by the government and community organizations during a disaster (Shankar, 2008). As mentioned previously regarding the use of C-ICTs by rural farmers in Cumbria UK, properly planned and implemented C-ICTs can successfully be used by communities beyond their use during emergencies. Community ICTs have been developed to assist communities in creating community memory – “the collective representation of past events and experiences that leave traces in the appearance of the built environment and contribute to a shared socio-cultural understanding of residents in a given locale” (Klaebe & Foth, 2006, p. 2). In developing countries, and especially the rural areas of those countries, C-ICTs are often accessed through Telecentres, which are public access facilities, much like internet cafés, developed to support technology needs and provide technology services such as training on computer use and online information research. Often, such C-ICTs are focused on information such as weather or market conditions and other information of immediate concern to rural areas and developing countries (Gurstein, 2001). Access to e-commerce provides communities with opportunities to expand their purchase power and compete globally with sales of their own products, and online education and training affords communities with opportunities to educate members in a range of information that pertains to their community and will help community members improve their particular production needs, such as learning new farming techniques (Gurstein, 2001). Simply using C-ICTs to find work opportunities, health information, government services, or manage personal finances can make a major impact on citizens’ lives. Consider the pilot project in Edinburgh, Scotland named “Getting Connected”. The project was designed to assist elderly residents in engaging in civic activities and the democratic process within their community via C-ICTs. In particular,