2. Community Networks (CNs) Defined

To some extent, the discussion on Community Networks is nested in a larger discussion on civic activity (or the lack of it) on both the national and community level.¹ An early on-line paper "Communications as Engagement," gopher://gopher.cdinet.com/11/millennium funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and published on-line by the Benton Foundation in 1995, identified "The New Communications" as an important tool of emergent civic networking. The report defines communications as "…the essence of revitalization. Without communications -- properly understood as dialogue, connection, and engagement in the process of being a citizen and living in a community- there is no revitalization."

The report included all modes of communication as central to community revitalization, but concluded that most community revitalization initiatives were not fully using the potential of telecommunications. Howard Rheingold, a veteran community-builder on the Web and author of The Virtual Community points to the workload involved in running a successful CN.

Publishing to each other could be part of community, but it isn’t sufficient, and putting up message boards and chat rooms is a step towards community, but online community does not automatically happen just by throwing tools at people. It requires thought. It requires talented hosts, log-in requirements that reduce anonymity and shared interests that will engage members and keep them coming back (In Janelle Brown’s article, January 1999, Salon)

Traditional community networks involve linkages between community members and groups through various forms of communication. The goal is sharing information and resources to develop the capacity of the community to take advantage of resources and opportunities for development. As new communication technologies emerge, the potential for new linkages becomes possible. The Association for Community Networking (AFCN) "Evaluation of Community Networking" Task Force has created the following working description of community networking:

Community Networking (CN) projects bring local people together to discuss their community's issues and opportunities, learn about Internet technology, and decide upon and create services to address these community needs and opportunities. CN is comprised of a wide variety of groups that make up a community (eg., libraries, Universities, K-12 schools, local government, businesses, media, individuals), with special focus on including those who are traditionally left out of community decision making in general, and technology decision making in particular (eg., low-income, minorities, senior citizens). CN projects value collaboration and participation, and are usually noncommercial.
(AFCN, http://bcn.boulder.co.us/afcn/index.html) 1998.

The AFCN listserv which started in 1998, as well as the older COMMUNET listserv are active subscriber lists concerned with issues of community networking and Free-Net utilization. COMMUNET has organized primarily around support and technical assistance for individuals starting up or managing community networks. The Communet Archive summarizes years of advice on building CNs and lobbying for the political support to continue the work. A more recent multi-layered ongoing dialogue on the nature of community on CNs is indexed by AFCN http://bcn.boulder.co.us/afcn/maillist/.

A recent AFCN newsletter reprinted "Four Rules of Thumb for Realizing Community Online" from a speech given by Garth Graham, board member of Telecommunities Canada http://www.tc.ca/realizing.html.

1. It’s the community that’s the network, not the technology.
   In other words, the primary goal is the social networks created by individuals connecting to each other around shared interests.
   
   
2. Now we make our networks and our networks make us.
   This point tries to capture the fact that electronic tools change how social networks evolve, even though they do not determine them.
   
   
3. The role of community networks is to turn the experience of being social in electronic space into practices that serve local news.
   Graham emphasizes that it is essential to see that real value of a community network comes from the degree of autonomy or control it gives a community over what it learns about change and about adapting to new circumstances.
   
   In other words, the information service provided by CNs is not the central value; it is the realization of community and the development of new and vital forms of social interaction.
   
   
4. On the net, community precedes commerce.
   This concept is debated by many, but Graham posits a difference between communities of "special interest" that aggregate the market, and "communities of shared value" that define true community.

¹As an interesting side note, Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: Civic Disengagement in America and what to do about it, a seminal book that spearheaded the national discussion on civic life, directs The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America, an initiative at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. This multi-year dialogue focuses on how we can increasingly build bonds of civic trust among Americans and their communities. It can be viewed on-line at http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/~saguaro/

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