The impact of local ICT initiatives on social capital and quality of life

This paper reviews the evidence for the effects of local ICT initiatives (‘community networks’) on neighbourhood social capital and quality of life and has been developed from the public SOCQUIT D11 report (Anderson et al, 2006)

Identifying critical factors for developing effective rural community technology centers

The purpose of this research is to inform both existing and developing community technology initiatives as to the critical factors for building effective rural community technology centers. Rural community technology centers which had been operating for at least two years were identified and contacted by telephone. Either a paid or volunteer staff person was interviewed using a semi-structured protocol of open-ended questions. Responses were taped, transcribed and coded using standard tools and procedures for qualitative investigation. Codes were grouped in 12 thematic groups. Relative occurrences of codes within each group were analyzed. Participants were asked what criteria were used to measure effectiveness of their centers. Participants also made recommendations about alternative evaluation metrics that could be evidence of the impact of their centers on participants. The findings suggest eleven areas that require attention when developing rural community technology centers or networks. Results also support Maughan\u27s model of a robust communication system and Kling\u27s Social Informatics theory

Persistent virtual identity in community networks: Impact to social capital value chains

Community networks are digital infrastructures designed to strengthen bonds and build social capital between members of a community, facilitating accomplishment of goals. As we consider how community network implementations can be improved, we recognize the potential that social translucence and activity notification introduces to other forms of CSCW. We investigate how the underlying notion of persistent virtual identity---established at logon---impacts user perception of community networks and their social capital production process. To approach this question, we introduce a design model that reconciles various computer-mediated communication research contributions with support for typical community network scenarios of use. Using this model, we perform an inspection on existing community network implementations. Based on the insight gained through this analysis, we introduce a generic prototype that allows survey of user reaction to community network design elements under differing conditions of persistent virtual identity implementation and usage motivation---the results frame a value-chain understanding of conceptual tradeoffs

Personalization by Partial Evaluation.

The central contribution of this paper is to model personalization by the programmatic notion of partial evaluation.Partial evaluation is a technique used to automatically specialize programs, given incomplete information about their input.The methodology presented here models a collection of information resources as a program (which abstracts the underlying schema of organization and flow of information),partially evaluates the program with respect to user input,and recreates a personalized site from the specialized program.This enables a customizable methodology called PIPE that supports the automatic specialization of resources,without enumerating the interaction sequences beforehand .Issues relating to the scalability of PIPE,information integration,sessioniz-ling scenarios,and case studies are presented

Designing Digital Communities that Transform Urban Life: Introduction to the Special Section on Digital Cities

The pervasive integration of digital technology into cities provides new opportunities for information systems scholars to participate in the efforts in transforming urban life. It requires (a) the creation of a large-scale digital infrastructure, (b) the design of new services and applications, and (c) the re-examination of the meaning of social interactions in public and private spaces. In order to create an initial forum for multi-disciplinary dialogue to explore these issues, a research workshop was organized by the Irwin L. Gross Institute for Business and Information Technology, Temple University on November 1–3, 2007. This special section includes three papers from the workshop. These three articles point out that the future socio-technical reality of digital urban environments must be deliberately designed in order to magnifies the strengths of the most daring human design endeavor ever—cities

Consequences of Content Diversity for Online Public Spaces for Local Communities

While there is significant potential for social technologies to strengthen local communities, creating viable online spaces for them remains difficult. Maintaining a reliable content stream is challenging for local communities with their bounded emphases and limited population of potential contributors. Some systems focus on specific information types (e.g. restaurant, events). Others allow many different information types. This paper reports our findings about the consequences of content diversity from a study of neighborhood-oriented Facebook groups. The findings raise questions about the viability of designs for local online communities that focus narrowly on single topics, goals, and audiences

Using ICT to support public and private community memories: case studies and lessons learned

Information communication technologies (ICTs) enable the development of memories across a variety of communities. We identify a spectrum of deployment from private through to open public spaces. As we move along this spectrum key variables change including mechanisms of trust and accountability and the definition of ownership, authorship and readership. Some challenges however, remain constant such as designing for sustainability and the need to align research and community goals. Private spaces can be created to enhance existing interactions, develop bonding capital and build shared memory. Such spaces allow a defined membership the opportunity to explore new ideas away from the public gaze, using language which may not be intelligible to outsiders. ICTs may be used to bridge internal and external audiences, repurposing content for a wider public. The original content may require alternative presentation, organisation or navigation methods to support its effective use by an external audience. Increasingly, community memories are being developed using social software within the public sphere, however this raises issues of authority, reputation management, and conflict resolution. Unexpected innovation may occur, and issues of sustainability must be addressed. In our analysis we will draw on three ICT initiatives in which we have participated: Bletchley Park Guides’ Forum, Bletchley Park Text and Milton Keynes Open Guide