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Dominican University

Graduate School of Library and Information Science

LIS 758 01: Community informatics

(3 credit hours)

Spring 2008

Wednesday 6.00 – 9.00 PM

Instructor

Dr Chris Hagar chagar@dom.edu

Tel: (708) 524 – 6850

Office: Crown 333

Office hours: Monday 5-6, Tuesday 2-4, Wednesday 5-6, and by appointment (in-person or telephone).

Course description

This course explores contemporary theory, research, and practice in community informatics. Community informatics (CI) is broadly defined as the use and application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in local communities. Topics covered include: foundations of CI; community networking and information systems, differences in access and use of ICTs by communities; public access to technologies; social capital and social networks; policy issues, specific application areas, and community memory. These topics will be discussed in the context of local, national and international case-studies.

Students will work collaboratively, participating, and discussing assigned readings and projects, as well as bringing new material to class. Students will undertake one local case-study situated in the Chicago metropolitan area and one research paper exploring a topic of their choice. The course is of interest to librarians, information workers, community workers, and policy-makers.

myDU

This course uses myDU for course announcements, course-related documents, readings, forums for discussion, student collaboration, and for submission of assignments. Students must check the myDU LIS 769 class page regularly.

Learning outcomes

Students will be able to:

Define and articulate fundamental concepts of community informatics

Discuss the social, economic, cultural, policy, contexts of CI

Analyze and assess current local, national, and international CI projects

Interpret findings of community informatics research

Interpret theories which inform research and practice

Apply lessons learned to a library context

Experiment with the development of new knowledge by combining theory with data students collect

Prerequisites

LIS701 Intro Lib Info Science

Required text

Keeble, L & Loader, B. (2002). Community informatics: Shaping computer-mediated social relations. London: Routledge (a copy is on Reserve in the Crown Library).

Weekly readings are listed below.

Assignments – due dates are listed in the schedule below.

Research project

Paper on a research topic and in-class presentations (3,000 words). The project will apply the concepts of Community Informatics to an analysis of a specific application or implementation. Ideas and suggestions for projects will be discussed in class. Students are required to make a mid-term presentation outlining the project and to present a final report of the findings.

45%

Chicago field-work: Case-study

An analysis and observation of a specific organization – community informatics site (2,000 words). The case-study will illustrate how the concepts discussed in class and in the readings may be applied to real-life contexts. Students will present their findings to the class.

25%

Participation

Students are required to actively participate in class - to read the assigned readings, discuss, pose, answer questions related to the weekly exercise / discussion question, and bring new material to the class.

20%

Leading class discussion

Each student will lead the class discussion once during the semester and will provide a 1 page ‘Reading Summary Outline’ of each of the papers selected for discussion that week.

10%

More information about assignments is available on the myDU LIS 758 class page

All work must be submitted by the posted due date to myDU. Late assignments are only acceptable in exceptional circumstances and if a prior arrangement is made with Dr Hagar. Points will be deducted for late submissions if no prior arrangement is made.

Assessment

From the GSLIS 2004-2005 Bulletin (p 19), “All students of the GSLIS are expected to observe high standards of academic honesty and integrity. Any student whose conduct violates such standards may be subject to disciplinary action as determined by due process.” Plagiarism on any assignment is unacceptable and will result in failure on that assignment.

Academic work always relies on other people’s work, and there are standards on how to do that while acknowledging those people. To understand what plagiarism is, see:

Purdue University's "Avoiding Plagiarism" at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html
Georgetown University's "What is Plagiarism," at http://www.georgetown.edu/honor/plagiarism.html
Indiana University's "Plagiarism: What It Is and How To Recognize and Avoid It" at http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

The course grading scale is as follows: A (95-100 points); A- (90 to 94 points); B+ (85-89 points); B (80-84 points); B- (77-79); C+ (74-76); C (70-74); C- (65-69); F (64 and below). Grading will follow GSLIS grading guidelines:

A: Outstanding achievement. Student performance demonstrates full command of the course materials and evinces a high level of originality and/or creativity that far surpasses course expectations; nearly flawless work.

A-:Excellent achievement. Student performance demonstrates thorough knowledge of the course materials and exceeds course expectations by completing all requirements in a superior manner.

B+:Good solid work. Student performance demonstrates strong comprehension of the course materials and exceeds course expectations on all tasks as defined in the course syllabus.

B: Satisfactory acceptable work. Student performance meets designated course expectations, demonstrates understanding of the course materials and performs at an acceptable level.

B- Marginal work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete, substandard understanding of course materials, or absence of required work; indicates danger of falling below acceptable grading standard.

C+: Unsatisfactory work. Student performance demonstrates unsatisfactory understanding of course materials and inability to meet course requirements.

C: Unacceptable work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete and inadequate understanding of course materials.

C-: Poor work.

F: Failing grade.

Schedule

Week	Date	Topics	Assignments
1	1/16	Introduction. Course overview and requirements Defining community informatics
2	1/23	Communities and technologies	Exercise
3	1/30	Digital divide Guest speaker: Dr Adrian Kok, GSSW, Dominican University	Exercise
4	2/6	Social capital Guest speaker: Dr Kate Williams, GSLIS University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)	Exercise Oral report on proposed Chicago case-study
5	2/13	Social networks Social movements	Exercise 1 page proposal & presentation on topic for research paper
6	2/20	CI genres and application areas	Exercise
7	2/27	CI methodologies Ethics for CI researchers	Exercise
8	SPRING BREAK

Week	Date	Topics	Assignments
9	3/12	Field-work
10	3/19	Chicago case studies Group 1 North American case-studies	Exercise Chicago case-studies due 3/14 Gp1 presentations
11	3/26	Chicago case-studies Group 2 North American case-studies 2	Exercise Chicago case-study group 2 reports. Gp2 presentations
12	4/2	International case-studies. CI as a development strategy Guest Speaker: Dr Sue Myburgh, School of Communication, Univ. of S. Australia - Community knowledge centres for disadvantaged groups a CI project at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology ,South Africa FRIDAY 4^TH APRIL E-CHICAGO SYMPOSIUM AT DU.	Exercise
13	4/9	E-Chicago symposium – current debates CI and crisis response	Exercise
14	4/16	Public policy Community memories and technologies	Exercise Research paper due 4/18
15	4/23	Student presentations
16	4/30	Student presentations Meet with CI class at GSLIS, UIUC ? Future of CI. Wrap-up

Readings

Week 1 - January 16: Introduction. Defining community informatics

Bieber, M., Gurstein, M., Civille, R., White, N., Silver, D. & Kolko, B. (2002). A White Paper Exploring Research Trends and Issues in the Emerging Field of Community Informatics. http://www.is.njit.edu/vci/vci-white-paper.doc

Bishop, A. & Bruce, B.C. (2005). Community informatics: Integrating action, research and learning. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 31(6). http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-05/bishopbruce.html

Keeble, L. & Loader, Brian D. (2001). Community informatics: themes and issues, pp. 1-10 in Community informatics: Shaping Computer-Mediated Social Relations. (required text)

See also

Carroll, J.M. & Rosson, M.B. (2003). A Trajectory for Community Networks. The Information Society (19), 381-393.

Gurstein, M. (2006). Notes towards an integrative agenda and community informatics theory. CRACIN working paper number 14. http://www3.fis.utoronto.ca/research/iprp/cracin/publications/pdfs/WorkingPapers/CRACIN%20Working%20Paper%20No%2014.pdf

Kavanaugh, A.(2001). Why Research on Community Networking Matters: A Practitioner's Perspective. 2001. http://www.bev.net/about/research/funded/docs/ICAPaper2001forBAA.pdf

Keeble, L. & Loader, Brian D. (2004) A literature review of community informatics initiatives http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/584.asp

Week 2 - January 23: Communities and technologies

Day, P. (2005). Sustainable community technology: The symbiosis between community technology and community research. Journal of Community Informatics,1(2) http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/217/177

Schuler, D. (1996). Community and technology: a marriage of necessity. Chapter 1 in New Community Networks: Wired For Change. http://www.scn.org/ncn/

Wellman, B. (1999). The network community: An introduction to networks in the global village. In Wellman, B. (Ed.) Networks in the Global Village (pp. 1-48).Boulder,CO:Westview http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/globalvillage/in.htm

See also

Community Technology Review. http://www.comtechreview.org/fall-2005/

Lessig, Lawrence. (2000). Code is law: on liberty in cyberspace. Harvard Magazine,January/February

http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/0100121.html

Musgrave, S.J. (2005). Community portals: A false dawn over the field of dreams? Journal of Community Informatics, (1), 2.

http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/182/128

Srinivasan, R. (2006). Where information society and community voice intersect. The Information Society, 22(5), 355-365.

Stillman, L. (2006) Understandings of technology in community-based organisations: A structurational analysis http://webstylus.net/?q=node/182

Week 3 - January 30: Digital divide

DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Celeste, C. & Shafer, S. (2004). Digital inequality from unequal access to differentiated use In K.Neckerman (Ed.) Social inequlaity. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, p.355-400.

http://eszter.com/research/c05-digitalinequality.html

Gurstein, M. (2003). Effective use: A community informatics strategy beyond the digital divide. First Monday, 8 (12).

http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/index.html

Loader, B. & Keeble, L. (2004). Challenging the digital divide?

A review of online community support. http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/1859351980.pdf

Siobhan Stevenson. (2007). Public libraries, public access computing, FOSS and CI: there are alternatives to private philanthropy. First Monday, 12 (5).

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1833/1717

Warschauer, Mark. (2002). Reconceptionalizing the digital divide. First Monday, 7(7). http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_7/warschauer/index.html

See Also

Meredyth, D., Hopkins, L., Ewing, S., & Thomas, J. Wired high rise: Using technology to combat social isolation on an inner city public housing estate In Mar shall, S., Taylor., & Yu, X (Eds.) ( 2004). Using community informatics to transform regions. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, p. 192- 208.

Venkatesan, V.S., Eversole, R., & Robinson, K. Information access in rural communities: Bridiging the digital divide. In Marshall, S., Taylor., & Yu, X (Eds.) ((2004). Using community informatics to transform regions. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, p. 147-164.

Week 4 - February 6: Social capital

Alkalimat, A. & Williams, K. (2001). Social capital and cyberpower in the African-American community. Chapter 12 in Keeble & Loader, p. 177-204.

(required text).

Pigg, K.E., & Crank, L.D. (2004). Building community social capital: The potential and promise of information and communications technologies. Journal of Community Informatics, (2004), Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 58-73. http://ci-journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=15&layout=html

Simpson, L.E. (2004). Community Informatics and Sustainability: Why Social Capital Matters, Journal of Community Informatics, 1 (2) http://ci-journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=47&layout=html

See Also

Johnson, C.A. (2007). Social capital and the search for information: Examining the role of social capital in information seeking behavior in Mongolia. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(6), 883-894.

Johnson , C.A. (2004). Choosing people: The role of social capital in information seeking behaviour, Information Research 10 (1). Available at: http://informationr.net/ir

Liff, S.T. (2005) Local Communities: Relationships between 'real' and 'social' virtual capital in van den Besselaar, P. et al (Ed.) Communities and Technologies, Kluwer Academic Publishers. www.iisi.de/fileadmin/IISI/upload/C_T/2005/Paper3C_T2005.pdf

Week 5 - February 13: Social networks and social movements

Hargrave, T., & Van de Ven, A. H. (2006). A collective action model of institutional change. Academy of Management Review, 31(4), 864-888. http://webpages.csom.umn.edu/smo/avandeven/Hargrave&Vandeven%20CA%20AMR%2011-22-04.pdf

Haythornthwaite, C. (2005). Social networks and internet connectivity effects. Information, Communication & Society, 8(2), 125-147.

Ellison, N.B., Steinfield, C. & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of facebook "friends:" social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12 (4), 1143–1168.

Wellman, B. (2001). Physical place and cyber place: The rise of networked individualism. Chapter 3 in Keeble & Loader (required text).

See also

Huysman, M., & Wulf, V. (2005). The role of information technology in building and sustaining the relational base of communities. The Information Society, 21, 81-89 [special issue].

Kavanaugh, A.L, Reese, D.D., Carroll, J.M. & Rosson, M.B. (2005). Weak ties in networked communities. The Information Society, 21(2), 119 - 131.

Ronfeldt, David & Arquilla, John. (2001). Networks, netwars and the fight for the future. First Monday, 6(10). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/889/798

Williams, Kate. (2005). Social networks, social capital, and the use of information communications technology in socially excluded communities: a study of community groups in Manchester, England. PhD thesis, University of Michigan. Chapter 2. http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39370/2/williams_kate_2005_dissertation.pdf

Week 6 - February 20: CI application areas

Bruce. B.C. & Bishop, A.P. (in press). New literacies and community inquiry. In Handbook of Research on New Literacies. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~chip/pubs/07handbook/hb.pdf

Katz, J. & Rice, R. E. (2002). Syntopia: Access, Civic Involvement and Social Interaction on the Net. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet In Everyday Life (pp. 114-138). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

See also

Local media and content development: Grand Rapids Community Media Center http://www.grcmc.org/

Cybermoor http://www.cybermoor.org

Week 7 - February 27: CI methodologies and ethics

Jankowski, N.W., Van Selm, M. & Hollander, E. (2001). On crafting a study of digital community networks: theoretical and methodological considerations. Chapter 8 in Keeble & Loader (required text).

Dara O’Neil. (2002). Assessing community informatics: a review of methodological approaches for evaluating community networks and community technology centers Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy 12(1), 76-102.

Pinkett, Randal. (2003). Community technology and community building: Early Results from the Creating Community Connections Project. The Information Society (19), 365-379.

Stoecker, R. (2005). Is Community Informatics good for communities? Questions confronting an emerging field. Journal of Community Informatics, 1(3), 13-26.

Ethics

Averweg, Udo & O’ Donnell, Susan (2007). Code of ethics for community informatics researchers. Journal of Community Informatics, 3, (1).

http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/441/307

Rambaldi, G., Chambers, R., Mccall, M. & Fox, J. (2006) Practical ethics for PGIS practitioners, facilitators, technology intermediaries and researchers. Participatory Learning and Action, 54. http://www.ppgis.net/pdf/ch14_rambaldi_pp106-113.pdf

See also
Murali Venkatesh. (2003). The Community Network Lifecycle: A Framework for Research and Action. The Information Society (19), 339-34.

Week 10 - March 19: North American case- studies

Hampton, Keith, & Wellman, Barry. (2002). The not so global village of Netville. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet In Everyday Life (pp. 345-371). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Kavanaugh, A., & Patterson, S. (2002). The impact of computer networks on social capital and community involvement in Blacksburg. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet In Everyday Life (pp. 325-344). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Week 11 - March 26: North American case-studies

Week 12 April 2: International case-studies – CI as a development strategy

Civil Society Statement to World Summit on the Information Society http://www.smsitunis2005.org/plateforme/pdf/civil-society-declaration-en.pdf

Gurstein, Michael (2003) Effective Use: A Community Informatics Strategy Beyond the Digital Divide. 2003. http://www.ccnr.net/prato2003/papers/gurstein.zip

Kline, Greg. (2007). UI project brings whole new world to African nation. The News Gazette, April 15 http://www.prairienet.org/saotome.txt

Lastra, Sarai - reference to follow

Mybrough, Sue – reference to follow

See also
Community radio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_radio#Bolivia

April 9: Public policy. Community memories and technologies

Day, Peter & Schuler, Douglas. (2004) “Prospects for a New Public Sphere,” in Douglas Schuler and Peter Day, eds., Shaping the Network Society: The New Role of Civil Society in Cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Stillman, Larry & Johanson, Graeme. (Eds.) (2007). Constructing and sharing memory. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing- selected chapters. Dr Hagar will circulate a copy of this book

Vanda N. Rideout and Reddick, Andrew J. Sustaining Community Access to Technology: Who Should Pay and Why, Journal of Community Informatics, 1(2).

Williams, Kate. (2006). Memory as archives in community informatics: Assembling and using the records of the Technology Opportunities Program (USA), 19994-2005. http://www.ccnr.net/?=node/169 - see attachment

See also

Cybermoor

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNziJDdVDzE

http://transportplan.cybermoorservices.co.uk/demos.php?page=detail&id_item=35&menucontext=1

April 16: CI and crisis response

Articles in Community Technology Review Fall 2005:

http://www.comtechreview.org/fall-2005/toc.html

Martin, Danielle. Technology’s role in disaster relief

Friedman, Nicole. A response to Katrina from Chicago’s center for neighborhood technology.

Payne, Nicole. Winds of change: A VISTA’s experiences in the Astrodome

Walker, Matthew. Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina.

Hagar, C. & Haythornthwaite, C. (2005). Crisis, farming & community. Journal of Community Informatics, 1(3). Available online at: http://ci-journal.net/viewarticle.php?id=89&layout=html

April 30: Future of CI

Stoecker, R. (2005). "Is Community Informatics good for communities? Questions confronting an emerging field. Journal of Community Informatics 1(3): 13-26.

Useful Resources

Journals:

Community Technology Review http://www.comtechreview.org/

(last issue Fall 2005)

Information, Communication, Society

Journal of Community Informatics http://ci-journal.net

New Media and Society http://newmediaandsociety.com/

Other useful journals but not as relevant as the titles above:

FirstMonday http://www.firstmonday.org/

Information Society

Organizations:

Association for Community Networking (AFCN)