Let me reply to David (Silver)'s several points in his recent note... particularly concerning the continued relevance of Community Networks... (while looking out over the broad sweep of the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii... There is of course, as many definitions of Community Networks as there are CN's. While many if not most CN's in the US (and Canada) have failed to make the transition from being low cost public ISP's to other roles enabling communities with ICT's, CN's continue to play a very important role in many parts of the world where they provide a means for facilitating bottom-up access (through public access facilities) or as a way of linking (international/national/regional) funders into local communities again for facilitating access and including training, enabling local e-commerce development and others. The Vancouver CN with which until recently I was active, still provides ISP service to thousands (and an increasing number as commercial providers of free dial-up access have disappeared), but also provides web hosting to hundreds of Vancouver area not-for-profits, training for individuals and not-for-profits, program design and delivery for various agencies looking to "bridge the Digital Divide" among others. The British Columbia Community Networking Association has some 100 or so members or affiliates all over the province including into some of the smallest and most remote First Nations communities. BTW, at the recent (2nd) Global Community Networking Congress http://www.globalcn2001.org were some 550 participants from 40 or so countries. Also, through one of those deliciously ironic twists of technology it now appears that widespread deployment of Broadband and particularly into non-metropolitan areas may require active local intervention and management. The concept of "community fibre" as a strategy for enabling demand aggregation at the local level sufficient to cost-justify the laying of fibre access underlies the far-sighted Broadband strategy articulated by Canada's National Broadband Task Force and which is widely seen in the US as a way out of the current Broadband financial debacle. The creation/recreation of local capacity either voluntary or through civic governments as the "owner/manager" of the local broadband access point/backbone would have the immediate effect of requiring the creation of some sort of local Community Networking capacity. The arguments around this are too long for this forum but are outlined in a paper that is available through the global cn 2001 website or I could forward as a Word file to those with an interest. Certainly, the broad sweep of Net evolution has been dominated by commercial developments in the last few years. But this isn't to say that the other sectors have disappeared--the volume of activity has probably increased absolutely while declining significantly relative to commercial activities. David's second point about the need for a new paradigm is an interesting one... Personally, I see the "network" as the new paradigm, and one which underlies the variety of "communities" or connections which are forming the basis for our discussion here. However, adopting the notion of "network" as a paradigm really only begs the question, since what is it that is being networked when one looks at for example the "networked society". For many I suspect, the nodes for which the network is providing connection are in fact "communities" rather than individuals and while individuals in complex environments may find themselves with loyalties to multiple communities, nevertheless, the (geo)community is at least one basis through which social (and Internet) connectivity is maintained. (My paper in the Keeble and Loader book I mentioned in the earlier post is concerned directly with this point.) Mike Gurstein Michael Gurstein, Ph.D. (Visiting) Professor: School of Management New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ -----Original Message----- From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org]On Behalf Of david silver Sent: December 26, 2001 8:57 PM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] community and kreplach So many great posts, so little time. (And a related quandary: so much leftover turkey and kreplach, so little stomach space.) I've been influenced by and intrigued with Wendy's work for years now and I take her very seriously when she asks: "Are virtual communities different today (this may have been partially what David was initially inquiring about)? Can they still be theorized as utopian, even other worldly? If so, does that take us back to 1992, rather than helping us develop theory for post-dot-com 2002?" Following Wendy's post is Mike Gurstein who notes that little if any has been said about community networks, CTCs, etc. In my mind, these two posts are somehow linked. I'm a bigtime fan of community networks but am currently finding it difficult to take them seriously in (almost) 2002. (This is not a flame, hardly; I'd like to see some evidence that they are still relevant these days.) And I wonder -- along with Wendy, and perhaps with Jonathan, too -- whether we're stuck in an outdated paradigm when we focus on community (read: non commercialized online environments). I know the Net-radio comparison has become a bit of a cliche but I still believe it extremely useful and find myself thumbing through the work of Susan Douglas, Susan Smulyan, and Daniel Czitrom, looking for clues. Like the Net, radio was ushered in on a red carpet of utopian hype and, also like the Net, was somewhat quickly commercialized. For the three scholars noted above, the commercialization of radio resulted in profound changes to the content and form of the medium. Now, if we were to take an informal vote on the last few years' most influential Net developments, I have little doubt that commercialization would top the list. (Any naysayers?) Which leads me back to Wendy's questions and another one: Why has the field been so resistant to tackle -- critically -- this development? david silver http://faculty.washington.edu/dsilver _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l