Towards a COMMUNITY NETWORK MOVEMENT Articles and other Resources by Doug Schuler

(Drawing by Zoe Schuler, technical assistance by Maggie Brunger)

There is no such thing as a poor community. Even neighborhoods without much money have substantial human resources. Often, however, the human resources are not appreciated or utilized, partly because people do not have information about each other and about what their neighborhood has to offer.

(Thanks to Peter Miller, Community Technology Center Network (CTCNet), for permission to use this photo.)

Communities are a rich and complex network of social relationships. Regardless of whether the nature of these relationships is economic, legal, political, or something else, communication and information are essential to the formulation and the maintenence of the social web that we call community.

Realizing that communication and information are increasingly dependent on networked digital information community activists all over the world -- often in collaboration with government agencies, non-profits, or businesses -- are developing community computer network systems. These projects, generally called community networks are free or very inexpensive to use and, unlike commercial systems whose primary aim is to make a profit, the primary aim of community networks is to support the local community; often by promoting one or more of what I call "Community Core Values" (including conviviality and culture; education; strong democracy; heath and well-being; economic equity,opportunity, and sustainability; and information and communication. To accomplish this, community networkers work with community organizations and individuals to use the systems in the way that works best for the community.

There are currently hundreds of existing community networks and hundreds more are being planned. The trend towards community enrichment, revitalization, and empowerment is not confined to the community networking movement: scores of organizations around the world are working on these issues and they all need our support.

Forums

• Being There -- On Electric Minds...

Web sites

• Community Computer Networks & Free-Net Web Sites WWW: http://freenet.victoria.bc.ca/freenets.html
• Community Networking Resources WWW: http://www.sils.umich.edu/Community/
• Community Networking Documents and Resources WWW: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ifla/services/commun.htm
• Civic Nets (Reti Civiche e Freenets) WWW: http://vega.unive.it/contrib/audies/civicnet.html

Books

• New Community Networks: Wired for Change was published in 1996 by Addison-Wesley. The entire book is now online. Thanks go to the Morino Institute for their initial support of putting the bilbilography and the appendixes online.
1. Community and Technology
2. Conviviality and Culture
3. Education
4. Strong Democracy
5. Health
6. Equity, Opportunity and Sustainability
7. Information and Communication
8. Social Architecture
9. Technological Architecture
10. Developing and Sustaining Community Networks)
11. Directions and Implications

Articles

• Computer Professionals and the Next Culture of Democracy Communications of the ACM. January, 2001.
• The Cyber-Knave Conspiracy: A Rant for Our Times. Or, in German, Eine Verschwrung von Cybergaunern: Eine zeitgenssische Beschimpfung Telepolis, June 14, 1999.
• Community Networks: Building a New Participatory Medium. From Communications of the ACM. January, 1994.
• How to Kill Community Networks - Hint: We May Have Already Started From The Network Observer. January, 1996.
• Public Space in Cyberspace: The Rise of the New Community Networks. From Internet World. December, 1995. (Hungarian translation is also available.)
• New Community Networks and the Tapestry of Democratic Technology, preface for Un cittadino tutto di bit: la democrazia elettronica dentro e fuori Internet
• Article in San Diego Union about SCN and community networks By Jeff Rose.

Interviews

• Interview at the infosandiego web site.

Papers

• Community Networks: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow From Proceedings of INET '96, Montreal, Canada. June, 1996.
• Community Computer Networks: An Opportunity for Collaboration Among Democratic Technology Practitioners and Researchers. Technology and Democracy - Comparative Perspectives. Oslo, Norway. January, 1997.
• What Kind of Platform for Change? Democracy, Community Work, and the Internet. Democracy and the Internet Conference. Munich, Germany. February, 1997.
• "Making Media Democratic" by Robert McChesney. There are several replies to the article including mine, "Dimishing Hopes" in which I describe the shrinking window of opportunity for Internet democracy.
• The Societal Design of a Societal Cyberspace Erik Stolterman and Doug Schuler.

Workshops

• Community networks workshop notes from the HUD Neighborhood Networks conference in Seattle in July, 1996.

Other

• An informal history of SCN
• A posting to communet on the underlying principles for community networks.

The purpose of this web site is to provide information that will help strengthen the community network movement worldwide. The structure of the site is still being designed - and redesigned. It will change! If you have any comments, suggestions or ideas, please let me know. Thanks, Doug Schuler, douglas@scn.org.

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