Editing Community informatics (section)

== Conceptual approaches ==
As an academic discipline, CI can be seen as a field of practice in applied information and communications technology. Community informatics is a technique for looking at economic and social development within the construct of technology—online health communities, social networking websites, cultural awareness and enhancement through online connections and networks, electronic commerce, information exchanges, as well as a myriad of other aspects that contributes to creating a personal and group identity.  The term was brought to prominence by [[Michael Gurstein]].  Michael Gurstein says that community informatics is a technology strategy or discipline that connects at the community level economic and social development with the emergence of community and civic networks, electronic commerce, online participation, self-help, virtual health communities, "Tele-centres", as well as other types of online institutions and corporations.  He brought out the first representative collection of academic papers,<ref>{{cite book|last=Gurstein|first=Michael|year=2000|title=Community informatics: enabling communities with information and communications technologies|publisher=Hershey, PA, Idea Group Pub}}</ref> although others, such as Brian Loader and his colleagues at the University of Teesside used the term in the mid-1990s.<ref>Loader, B. and L. Keeble (2002). Community informatics : shaping computer-mediated social relations. New York, Routledge.
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CI brings together the practices of community development and organization, and insights from fields such as sociology, planning, computer science, [[critical theory]], women's studies, library and information sciences, management information systems, and management studies. Its outcomes—[[community network]]s and community-based ICT-enabled service applications—are of increasing interest to grassroots organizations, NGOs and civil society, governments, the private sector, and multilateral agencies among others. Self-organized community initiatives of all varieties, from different countries, are concerned with ways to harness ICT for [[social capital]], poverty alleviation and for the empowerment of the "local" in relation to its larger economic, political and social environments. Some claim it is potentially a form of 'radical practice'.<ref>Graham, Garth, Community Networking as Radical Practice The Journal of Community Informatics, Vol 1, No 3 (2005).
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Community informatics may in fact, not gel as a single field within the academy, but remain a convenient locale for interdisciplinary activity, drawing upon many fields of social practice and endeavour, as well as knowledge of community applications of technology. However, one can begin to see the emergence of a postmodern "trans-discipline" presenting a challenge to existing disciplinary "stove-pipes" from the perspectives of the rapidly evolving fields of technology practice, technology change, public policy and commercial interest. Whether or not such a "trans-discipline" can maintain its momentum remains to be seen given the incertitude about the boundaries of such disciplines as community development.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Hustedde | first1 = R. J. | last2 = Ganowicz | first2 = J. | year = 2002 | title = The basics: What's essential about theory for community development practice? | journal = Journal of the Community Development Society | volume = 33 | issue = 1| pages = 1–20 | doi=10.1080/15575330209490139| s2cid = 144824916 }}</ref>

Furthermore, there is a continuing disconnect between those coming from an Information Science perspective for whom social theories, including general theories of organisation are unfamiliar or seemingly irrelevant to solving complex 'technical' problems,<ref name="Orlikowski">Orlikowski, W. J. and S. R. Barley (2001). "Technology and institutions: What can research on information technology and research on organizations learn from each other?" MIS Quarterly; management information systems 25(Jun): 145-165.</ref> and those whose focus is upon the theoretical and practical issues around working with communities for democratic and social change<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Stoecker | first1 = R | year = 2005 | title = Is Community Informatics good for communities? Questions confronting an emerging field | journal = The Journal of Community Informatics | volume = 1 | issue = 3| pages = 13–26 | doi = 10.15353/joci.v1i3.2029 | doi-access = free }}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = O'Neil | first1 = D | year = 2002 | title = Assessing community informatics: A review of methodological approaches for evaluating community networks and community technology centers | journal = Internet Research | volume = 12 | issue = 1| pages = 76–103 | doi=10.1108/10662240210415844}}</ref>

Given that many of those most actively involved in early efforts were academics, it is only inevitable that a process of "sense-making" with respect to these efforts would follow from "tool-making" efforts. These academics, and some community activists connected globally through the medium.{{Clarify|date=June 2014|reason=Through which medium?}}

A first formal meeting of researchers with an academic interest in these initiatives was held in conjunction with the 1999 Global Community Networking Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This meeting began the process of linking community-based ICT initiatives in [[Developed country|developed countries]] with initiatives undertaken in [[Developing country|developing countries]], which were often part of larger economic and social development programmes funded by agencies such as the [[UN Development Programme]], [[World Bank]], or the [[International Development Research Centre]]. Academics and researchers interested in ICT efforts in developed countries began to see common and overlapping interests with those interested in similar work in less developed countries.  For example, the issue of sustainability as a technical, cultural, and economic problem for community informatics has resulted in a special issue of the Journal of Community Informatics<ref>Journal of Community Informatics Vol 1, No 2 (2005)</ref> as well as the subject of ongoing conferences in Prato, Italy and other conferences in South Africa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ciresearch.net|accessdate=2006-11-23|title=Community Informatics Research Network}}</ref>

In Canada, the beginnings of CI can be recognized from various trials in community networking in the 1970s (Clement 1981). An essential development occurred in the 1990s, due to the change of cost of computers and modems. Moreover, examples of using computer networking to initiate and enhance social activities was acknowledged by women's groups (Balka 1992) and by the labor movement (Mazepa 1997).<ref name="source35" >{{cite book|last1=Clement|first1=Andrew|last2=Gurstein|first2=Michael|last3=Longford|first3=Graham|last4=Moll|first4=Marita|last5=Shade|first5=Leslie Regan|title=Connecting Canadians investigations in community informatics|date=2012|publisher=AU Press|location=Edmonton|isbn=978-1-926836-42-3}}</ref>

===Social informatics beyond an immediate concern for a community===
{{main|Social informatics}}

Social informatics refers to the body of research and study that examines social aspects of computerization—including the roles of information technology in social and organizational change, the uses of information technologies in social contexts, and the ways that the social organization of information technologies is influenced by social forces and social practices.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/ |title=Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics |publisher=Rkcsi.indiana.edu |accessdate=2012-06-08}}</ref> Historically, social informatics research has been strong in the Scandinavian countries, the UK and Northern Europe.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sawyer|first1=Steve|last2=Rosenbaum|first2=Howard|title=Social Informatics in the Information Sciences: Current Activities and Emerging Directions|journal=Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline|date=2000|volume=3|pages=89–96|url=http://www.inform.nu/Articles/Vol3/v3n2p89-96r.pdf|accessdate=9 June 2014|issn=1521-4672|doi=10.28945/583|doi-access=free}}</ref> In Europe some researchers have pointed out that in order to create awareness of the importance of social issues of computing, one has to focus on [[didactics]] of social informatics.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Godejord|first1=Per A|title=Fighting child pornography: Exploring didactics and student engagement in social informatics|journal=Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology|volume=58|issue=3|pages=446–451|doi=10.1002/asi.20522|year=2007}}</ref>
Within North America, the field is represented largely through independent research efforts at a number of diverse institutions. Social informatics research diverges from earlier, deterministic (both social and technological) models for measuring the social impacts of technology. Such technological deterministic models characterized information technologies as tools to be installed and used with a pre-determined set of impacts on society dictated by the technology's stated capabilities.  Similarly, the socially deterministic theory represented by some proponents of the [[social construction of technology|social construction of technology (SCOT)]] or [[social shaping of technology]] theory see technology as the product of human social forces.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Williams|first1=Robin|last2=Edge|first2=David|title=The social shaping of technology|journal=Research Policy|volume=25|issue=6|pages=865–899|doi=10.1016/0048-7333(96)00885-2|year=1996|s2cid=17412694 |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28638/1/Introductory%20essay%20%28LSERO%29.pdf}}</ref>