Community Informatics is developing as an approach for linking economic and social development efforts at the community level to the opportunities that information and communication's technologies present. Areas such as SMEs and electronic commerce, community and civic networks, electronic democracy and online participation are among a few of the areas affected. Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies is an introduction to the discipline of community informatics. Issues such as trends, controversies, challenges and opportunities facing the community application of information and communications technologies into the millennium are studied.

"This encyclopedia provides a thorough examination of concepts, technologies, policies, training, and applications of ICT in support of economic and regional developments around the globe"--Provided by publisher.

Community groups, social support networks, voluntary agencies and government organisations are all actively exploring the potential of the new information and communication technologies to bring about democratic development and renewal. A rich variety of social experiments in what has become known as Community Informatics is now beginning to provide useful research findings and exciting examples of innovative applications. This book sets down some of the defining features of a Community Informatics approach and some of the common themes which are emerging. In particular it considers the following issues: * sustainability * employment * community management * public service provision * partnerships of stakeholders * local learning * social support and networks. This edited collection brings together leading exponents of Community Informatics from around the world and critically evaluates their experiences.

Successful strategies and principles for using information technology to transform regional and community economies exist, and they are presented here with clarity and insight in a way that is useful to both practitioners and researchers. Although the communities discussed here range far and wide, from those in Russia to Australia and to Kenya, any community can benefit from enhanced utilization of information and communication technologies. The ways in which technology can help improve economic, social, cultural, and political conditions are as numerous and various as the communities themselves. In Central Queensland, Australia, community leaders have brought in a high-tech expert advisory system to help them control weed infestation. New Zealand and Australia have pioneered telehealth, the exchange of health care information and the delivery of some services across great distances. In Russia, wiring a community was found to be about more than mere hardware and software; vital to the process was understanding how communities provide access to information technology, how authorities and volunteers can improve computer literacy among citizens, and how connectivity can be extended to greater numbers of people. In some areas of south Asia, nongovernmental organizations have teamed up with local governments to increase access, empowerment, and e-commerce opportunities. These are but a few of the ways this volume contributes to our knowledge base about the impact of technology on economic development.

Community Informatics (CI) is the application of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to enable community processes and the achievement of community objectives. CI goes beyond the "Digital Divide" to making ICT access usable and useful to excluded populations and communities for local economic development, social justice, and political empowerment. CI approaches ICTs from a "community" perspective and develops strategies and techniques for managing their use by communities both virtual and physical including the variety of Community Networking applications. CI assumes that both communities have characteristics, requirements, and opportunities that require different strategies for ICT intervention and development from individual access and use. Also, CI addresses ICT use in Developing Countries as well as among the poor, the marginalized, the elderly, or those living in remote locations in Developed Countries. CI is of interest both to ICT practitioners and academic researchers and addresses the connections between the policy and pragmatic issues arising from the tens of thousands of Community Networks, Community Technology Centres, Telecentres, Community Communications Centres, and Telecottages globally along with the rapidly emerging field of electronically based virtual "communities."

Drawing on the experiences of individuals, households and businesses, this book offers an international view on being rural as information and communication technologies are applied more widely and allow people to be connected across geographies.

As a discipline, Informatics has developed over the years from its initial focus on data processing and software development, towards a more recent emphasis on people’s use of technology and its impact on their working and private lives. Gunilla Bradley, an internationally recognized expert in this field, has researched this area for many years and here, authors this indispensable volume on the topic. Providing a broad and deep analysis of the relationship between people, ICT, society and the environment, Bradley examines the impact on/change in organizations and individuals, both in the workplace and in the home. Taking a firmly humanistic view she also looks to the future as ICT increasingly transforms and impacts on our lives, and explores issues including stress, power, competence and psychosocial communication. She proposes normative research questions for the future and presents actions to achieve the Good ICT society. This thought-provoking book will be of interest to students and academics studying social informatics, computing and MIS as well as organizational behaviour, sociology, psychology and communications. Research-based and cross-disciplinary, Bradley's book is a valuable, and topical, resource.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Online Communities and Social Computing, OCSC 2007, held in Beijing, China, July 2007 in the framework of the 12th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2007. It covers designing and developing on-line communities, as well as knowledge, collaboration, learning and local on-line communities.

Community Informatics is a developing field which brings together understandings about the interaction of communities and information and communication technologies from fields as diverse as Management and Information Systems, Library and Information Sciences, Community Development, Sociology, or Social and Community Welfare. A key assumption of community informatics is that technologies can be used for positive social change and development, particularly with disadvantaged communities or communities that hitherto, have not had a public voice. The volume brings together international perspectives around defining and debating the idea of community memory which, as Alex Byrne, President of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions observed in his splendid and wide-ranging Introduction: "community memories are multilayered, changeable, conflicting and contested", and the multilayering, changeability and contest between different players provide fertile theoretical and practical ground for Community Informatics and its interdisciplinary cousins. "Community Informatics is an emerging new multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the intersection of communities and Information and Communication Technologies. This volume contains significant contributions from international practitioners and researchers in the fields of archives, record-keeping, community knowledge management, emerging information and communication technologies, history, community development-virtual as well as real-and Community Informatics as a growing discipline. The content of the book is a unique contribution in the field. The volume will be read by researchers, and communities interested in how they communicate their past, present, and future." —Professor Emerita Gunilla Bradley Informatics School of ICT Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm Sweden "Practitioners, researchers and theoreticians in Community Informatics will find a unique array of valuable perspectives in this book. It covers the interaction of communities, memories and technologies in a highly original way, with regard to its breadth and the number of case studies it presents. It incorporates contributions from 13 countries in all parts of our endangered planet, thus providing the international perspective that is critical to understanding how communities can use technology for societal good." —Professor Michel Menou. Les Rosiers sur Loire, France, Associate, Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Information and Communication Technologies, Society and Human Beings: Theory and Framework addresses the extensive area of effects of ICT on human beings and the interaction between ICT, individuals, organizations, and society. This premier reference source features contributions from over 45 distinguished researchers from around the world, each presenting high quality research on Social Informatics, Human Computer Interaction, Organizational Behavior, and Macro-ergonomics. This unique publication is perfect for students, teachers, researchers, engineers, practitioners, managers, policy-makers, and media alike.