Community Informatics: Where are we now?

Community Informatics and ICT4DWhere We Are and Where to Go from Here

Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.

Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training

Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA

gurstein@gmail.com

The Good

E-Bario

E-Bario

E-Bario

K-Net

K-Net

K-Net

E-Krishok

E-Krishok

E-Krishok

E-Governance India

The Not So Good

ICTs Africa

ICTs Africa

ICTs Africa-Rwanda

ICTs Africa-Rwanda

The UglyThomas Hobbes Designs An APP

Background:

–Getting clean water is a problem in slum environments

–So finding sources of clean water should be something of benefit to citizens—yes?

–So as a class project at a major university students were invited to develop a smartphone “app” to help the folks in the slum to find clean water

–What they did was to link a gps to a crowd sourcing too and allow folks to input the specific location and quality of the (commercial) water sellers as they worked their way through the local community

–Sounds pretty good, yes?

ICTs/Mobiles-->Development?•Integration?

– Design “developmental programs” offline based on computers with integration of mobiles

– Mobiles become input/output devices– ICTs become data-management/processing– Community site/telecentre as organizing/mobilizing

focal point– Broad design process linking back to overall

programs

Community Informatics

Enabling (empowering) “communities” with information and communications technologies (ICT’s)• CI is of equal interest to practitioners, researchers/techies, and

policy makers

• CI for practitioners—how to do what they do

• CI for researchers/techies—how to make the work of practitioners supporting the grassroots more effective

• CI for policy makers—the Digital Divide, ICT 4 Development, community centred policies and policy development

What is Community Informatics?

• community focused planning, designing, & implementing ICTs in an Information Society• enabling/empowering (bottom up) communities and community processes with ICTs• moving beyond the “Digital Divide” to “effective use” to support:

•social cohesion, •social and economic inclusion•civic involvement,•socio-economic development

• the “social appropriation”/community ownership of ICTs

Some Background

• a bit of bio• WSIS I and now WSIS +10• the development discourse• Community Informatics

Some things have changed

• focus is now on mobiles• major donors have moved away from ICTs and “connectivity”• huge increase in connectivity via mobiles • much of new Internet access is via mobiles

But

• mobiles have limited visual footprint• mobiles have less functionality for many purposes• mobiles are also costly (in many instances)• huge increase in connectivity via mobiles • much of new Internet access is via mobiles• many still don’t even have mobile access• mobile penetration driven by private sector/markets• still a very significant set of unmet needs re: development• increasing economic inequalities in LDC’s and within DC’s…

So, some things to discuss

• where to go for community based initiatives• major donors have moved away from ICTs and “connectivity”—where to go with this• raising the profile on inequality as that underlies all the other issues—connectivity, access• Community Informatics where to from here—the need is there but what about the “demand”?

What’s Different About CI

• CI puts communities as users at the center of ICT design, development and implementation

• CI enables communities to achieve their multiple goals and ensure community technology “ownership”

• CI includes the user, the use, and the larger social context in the design

• CI links researchers, practitioners/commuities and policy makers in problem based system design

• CI includes a range of disciplines: CS, Social Work, Communications, Planning/Urban Studies, Development Studies, Sociology, Anthropology

Stakeholders in CI

Researchers/Techies

PractitionersPolicy Makers

The StakeholdersPrivate Sector–Knowledge–Capital–Markets

Governments–Resources–Regulatory authority–Havee responsibility

Communities–Have the need–Have local resources–Are there for the long term

The CI Approach to ICTs

Access

Adoption

Social Appropriation

Effective ICT Use

Now Where To Go…

•Where not to go is to develop stand alone services -- these fail and are unsustainable

•Where to go is to build the demand and expectation for effective and efficient service delivery from/to and with the users/communities –

•Enable existing processes/activities using ICTs to make processes more efficient and effective

•Build the ICT component as a facilitator/extender to other activities

Lessons Learned for Community ICTs

1.Only bottom up community based strategies work2.Policy plays a key role3.Research plays a significant role4.Partnerships are essential--with governments, private sector, existing institutions,5.Significance of networking for scaling up6.Technology does matter (but not that much)

Because…•The Real Power of ICTs comes when communities are enabled with Community Based ICTs and where a Community Informatics approach empowers local communities to use ICTs for…–Local development–Local health service–Local economic development–Local environmental management–Local resource development

The Challenge!

To re-think system design placing “effective use” by "communities" (virtual or physical) at the centre:

- as the owners or subjects of systems - placing information systems in the broader context of their

links to social/community systems - giving equal weight and design emphasis to making systems

useful and usable to communities for their purposes for:+ economic and social development, + cultural production and survival, + managing climate change and adaptation+ facilitating market access, quality control, loss

mngmt+ democratic decision making and participation

- taking a problem focussed approach to system design

Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.

Centre for Community Informatics Research,

Development and Training

Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA

http://www.communityinformatics.net

gurstein@gmail.com

Additional Resources

Email list: ciresearchers@vcn.bc.ca

E-journal: http://ci-journal.net

Blog: http://gurstein.wordpress.com

Twitter: @MichaelGurstein

Wiki: http://cirn.wikispaces.com/

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_informatics