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Community Networking in the United States
The development of the personal computer in the late 1970s and the later dispersion of low- cost modems laid the groundwork for wide-spread community networking. In 1986 in Cleveland Tom Grundner established The first "FreeNet" as a grassroots outgrowth of a successful Bulletin Board System for health-related questions. Partnered with Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Free-Net expanded the issues addressed by the BBS to focus on those of community- building, promote civic participation in the local government, increase communication among all members of the community, and increase involvement in community activities The In 1989 Tom Grundner began the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN), an organization intended to coordinate the growth and development of grassroots "Free-Nets" across the US. The NPTN main motive was to lend aid and support to those people at the local level interested in building networks for their own communities. By 1993, BBS and text-based Internet CNs were springing up across the US. The Internet s move into the civic and commercial realm, and the development of the Web, unleashed public use of the Net and the emergence of many new CNs from 1994 to today. CN dedicated conferences and workshops have been held in the US since 1992. 1996 was marked by the end of the organizational NPTN Freenet movement, and by the founding of the Association for Community Networking (AFCN). Several other organizations have been founded by community network enthusiasts in the United States as well including the Center for Civic Networking, the Morino Institute, and the Institute for Global Communication. Currently an informal coalition of members of such non-profit groups meets regularly in Washington DC under the name Telecommunication Policy Roundtable (TPR) to discuss and lobby for proposals. Community Networking in Canada The history of community networks in Canada dates back to 1992 when the Victoria Free-Net in Victoria was founded.Ottawa's National Capital FreeNet appeared shortly afterwards in the same year. The success of these two networks founded by interested individuals in the large cities spurred developments of community networks in other Canadian metropolises and interest in networking in more rural areas. Initially, there was little national coordination to the movement, unlike in the US where the NPTN was already serving as an umbrella organization for the country. No federal government funding was made available to these early adopters which made matters in Canada more difficult. However, after the ground was broken, community networks flourished in Canada, as over 60 have sprung up in the past six years, according to the list maintained by the Victoria Free-Net http://www.freenet.victoria.bc.ca/freenets.html . Many early community networks in Canada followed the models provided by Ottawa and Victoria and thus borrowed certain assumptions and solutions to problems that did not fit the profiles of their own communities. Because Victoria and Ottawa already had commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs), they had a pre-existing, stable user-base from which to expand. However, commercial ISPs were not common in Canada during the early 1990s, and many early community networks failed to launch community outreach programs to introduce the new technology. Seeing the need for unity in the community networking movements, the umbrella organization Telecommunities Canada (TC) was founded in 1994 to lobby the federal government for continued support and aid for fledgling networks. It has also organized annual conferences to physically bring together community network volunteers. TC intentionally has a very loose organizational structure which is meant to preserve the autonomy of the member networks. Community Networking in the UK Community Networking in the UK in some ways followed the USA model for a short period of time.The use of the personal computer along with low cost modems opened the way for community networking in the UK. Geographical community networks sprang up and in recent years Communities of interests of all flavours have developed online. In the early 1990's a few key players who were already using technology to communicate with like- minded people. A few people were using the technology to campaign around particular issues. The technology provided the means for ideas to be exchanged quickly and for plans to be developed. Creating static pages of information was a very simple stage on, from email communication. For example the Coventry Environmental Network used the technology to develop ideas between local campaigners, long before the advent of Agenda21. Similar activities were mirrored across the UK. Linking up some of the key players was just one of the activities developed by Communities Online in the UK. http://www.communities.org.uk It slowly became clear that the development of information in a geographical context was going to be useful on various levels. Local information about a community was both a public service and could potentially be a mechanism for strengthening a community an in turn the community sector. The community sector has been defined in the INSINC report as "the whole range of autonomous collective activity, directly undertaken by individuals within their neighbourhood or community of interest to improve collective life and conditions. It is a spectrum that extends from very informal networks and activities based around households, to more formalised community groups and community based organisations. As the INSINC report points out, the central role of this sector in confronting disadvantage and ensuring sustainable regeneration is increasingly being recognised. It is arguable that Community networks and initiatives can provide important frameworks both for developing social inclusion and promoting local commerce and business. Some of the issues around the development of Community Networking within the UK can be seen in the work of Communities Online. So a few more details about the work will now be outlined: Strands of developmentCommunities Online developed from a number of strands:
In the UK C-nets have begun developing partly through the foresight and energy of a number of enthused activists, and sometimes where local authorities or other agencies have seen a need and assumed an enabling responsibility - for example facilitating meetings and early development. Elsewhere, authorities seem to have perceived a strategic need to develop electronic networks with public access points, for the provision of information and the purpose of reducing the costs of service delivery. These might perhaps be better described as 'civic networks', although c-nets may evolve from them. Often c-nets have evolved from other initiatives such as community teleservice centers. Some established community computing projects, however, have evolved with a strong focus on skills acquisition and employability, which may not emphasise information or communication. |