BUILDING COMMUNITY WITH THE HELP OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES – OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES Wed, 25/1/2017 6pm University of Westminster, 309 Regent St, London W1B 2HW Fyvie Hall Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/building-community-with-the-help-of-informati... Accessing the Internet day in, day out is part of everyday life. But we take for granted that the way we access the Internet is via a service provider, usually among the largest for-profit corporations in the world. We rarely think about whether there are alternative forms of Internet infrastructure that do not operate access as profitable business. This event explores community networks as alternative forms of Internet access and presents two talks on community networks by experts who come from academia and industry. Prof Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen, will present work carried out in Aberdeen among four rural communities that have used information technology in different ways to help build community networks and an enhanced sense of identity and social cohesion. The research was sponsored by the EPSRC as part of the Cultures and Communities Network+ initiative and as part of the Aberdeen Digital Economy hub. Adam Burns, member of the netCommons project advisory board and a long-time community network practitioner, will talk about his experiences, motivations, and the realities of community networks. He will report on how from his experience alternative Internet access and infrastructure can be organised and what the opportunities and challenges are in doing so. This public event is organised by the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS) in the context of the EU Horizon2020 project netCommons (http://netcommons.eu/) Forthcoming WIAS events: Fri, Feb 3: China’s Economic Transformation in the New Media Era, https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chinas-economic-transformation-in-the-new-med... Fri, March 3: The Unreality of Reality TV: From "After Dark" towards Twitter, Big Data, and "Big Brother" https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unreality-of-reality-tv-from-after-dark-towar... For WIAS infos about events, publications, calls, etc, subscribe to the WIAS Newsletter https://www.westminster.ac.uk/newsletter