Publications
/ Table of Contents
Community Networks, Community, and
Commerce:
Networking Through Communication
Technology
an on-line review
4. The Issue of Access
Most Free-Nets are concerned with issues of access to services,
particularly for low-income and minority groups. The study
of the National Capital FreeNet in Ottawa Canada by Andrew
S. Patrick, Alex Black, & Thomas E. Whalen (1995) is
an early examination of who is actually using Free-Nets.
Their National Services Research work, Rich Young Male,
Dissatisfied Computer Geeks? showed that users were not
a specialized group although they did tend to be predominately
white and male. Strategies for overcoming access challenges
are highlighted in Losing
Ground Bit by Bit: Low-Income Communities in the Information
Age, 1998, published by the Benton Foundation. In this
report, projects from around the U.S. are highlighted as
demonstrations of Internet training and access, school-related
programs, small business marketing, among others. The Benton
Foundation also provides a set of Internet resources for
assisting communities in their use of communications technology
in the form of a"Best
Practices Toolkit." Additional research regarding
access issues for low-income and minority populations include:
In a 1995 Rand report on "UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO E-MAIL,"
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR650/index.html,
Sally Ann Law and Brent Keltner report on research examining
the use of email as the catalyst to stimulate individuals
to use and benefit from community networks. They focus their
case studies on CNs with a conscious mission to reach under-served
populations or a goal of creating "electronic democracy."
They found that email is the most commonly used feature
of the networks (a consistent finding of communications
researchers), and that it stimulates user participation
in other aspects of network life. They also detail four
categories of benefits that are packaged in the context
of civic networks and are potentially attainable by all
citizens regardless of income, education, race or other
traditionally access-limiting characteristics:
- Network access provides individuals and groups with
opportunities for new and more effective ways of communicating…Civic
networks, therefore, have the ability to support interpersonal
relationships, local community-building, and social integration.
- Civic networks serve an important information resource
function. Via electronically accessible databases and
direct on-line connections to service providers, individuals
and groups can access, use, and distribute information
relatively cheaply and effectively.
- Civic networks can facilitate the formation and restructuring
of organizations by combining both communication and information
functions of networked technology. The primary goal of
two of the networks (LatinoNet and Playing to Win) is
to connect nonprofit and community-based organizations.
Such organizations are typically resource-constrained,
so having the ability to communicate rapidly and reliably
with key stakeholders, e.g., potential collaborators,
regulators, and clients, as well as being able to gain
access to and advertise information, is of substantial
benefit to them.
- Civic networks may offer some services aimed at promoting
greater efficiency and increased responsiveness of government
institutions. An electronic network can change the status
quo by restructuring delivery of government services,
raising citizen awareness of local and national political
issues, and encouraging participation in the political
process.
Other researchers point out that the basic access issue
is that very low income groups often have trouble accessing
ongoing affordable telephone service and Internet access
remains a luxury.
 |
Page 4 of 11 |
 |
|
