Hi Geert, You might be interested in an account of some Community Informatics work we did in Cape Breton. As you may know, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia in Canada has suffered severely in recent years with the loss of its fishery, coal mine and steel mill. The result has been the highest unemployment rate in Canada (20% official/40-50% unofficial). However, the region has for a variety of historical reasons retained elements of a remarkably intact Highland Gaelic culture including a form of Celtic music which musicologists (and musicians) from around the world look to as among the purest currently being performed. As other sources of employment and income have disappeared, culture and tourism and particularly the music "industry" in Cape Breton have come to be seen as a highly valuable and "sustainable" resource. In 1996 we formed an email list called CBMusic which proved to be a significant element in the formation of a global community of those with an interest in the music, and an important link to the local Cape Breton music "business"/community and not incidentally making some quite useful contributions to the local economy. There is an account of this in "Fiddlers on the Wire: Music, Electronic Commerce and Local Economic Development on a Virtual Cape Breton Island", in Doing Business on the Internet: Opportunities and Pitfalls, Celia T. Romm and Fay Sudweeks (Eds.), Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1999. I could also send it as a word file to those with an interest. A longer account of the overall work and project will be forthcoming in a book tentatively entitled "Not By Default: Community Innovation and Information Technology on Cape Breton Island", University College of Cape Breton Press, and in the book Burying Coal: Research and Development for Remote and Rural Development, available from Progressive Publishers, Vancouver BC or by email from myself. All the best, Mike Gurstein, Michael Gurstein, Ph.D. (Visiting) Professor: School of Management New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ Formerly Director: Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking University College of Cape Breton, Sydney, NS, CANADA -----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org]On Behalf Of geert lovink Sent: May 22, 2002 10:23 PM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] case studies of mailinglists Dear Air-l, for my PhD at the University of Melbourne I have recently written a few case studies of mailinglist communities. Now I am winding up this project and for the introduction and conclusion I would like to refer to a few similar case studies, but I can't find all that many of them. Does anyone have a suggestion? It could be studies about virtual communities but that's perhaps a bit too broad. I am in particularly interested in internal dynamics and issues of sustainability. Any reference is most welcome. BTW. I do like the (new) afterword Howard Rheingold wrote for his Virtual Community book which MIT Press reprinted recently. I am not sure how welknown this text is. It's a good and honest reassessment of his passions. Yours, Geert Lovink (Sydney) _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l