Project Background

Community networks have been called "intelligence systems for local communities." Significant resources are being spent to prove this true: cities are investing in electronic town halls; planning departments are using networks to create public information databases; large foundations and organizations are trying to "democratize data" (see, for example, the National Neighborhood Indicators Project ); and neighborhood and civic organizations around the country are creating neighborhood information infrastructures (for example, Prairienet ; Camfield Estates ).

But have information technologies actually improved citizen participation and the ability to access, understand, and produce information within and about their communities? Recent discussions of this question suggest that the answer is "no." Leading community informatics researcher Michael Gurstein (2003) argues that concern for the "digital divide" has focused attention on infrastructure and on technical solutions to human use problems. He insists-as does this project-that the critical issue with respect to the social impact of information technologies is the extent to which non-expert, non-traditional users of technologies, especially those typically marginalized, can become productive with advanced information technologies in a way that expands local capacity to achieve community objectives (p. 7).

We know very little about how advanced information technologies are used in community-based settings to enable active citizenship and community development. There is little research focusing on citizen productivity-on how citizens use advanced information technologies to produce new information and participate in public life. We have no evidence-based theory about how to design information technologies for community-situated audiences, and the usability of advanced information technologies is often cited as a major barrier.

The objectives of the CACI project are to:

1) Meet a critical need for studies of community-based use of advanced information technologies. 2) Understand how information technologies are actually used and how they can be integrated more fully into community projects. 3) Develop an evidence-based theory for the design of information technology tools (e.g., interfaces) for non-expert, non-traditional users. 4) To move beyond concerns of ICTs as "usable" and "useful" in communities, to considerations of ICTs as one facet of building community infrastructure. 5) Support an existing project (CACVoices) through research in such a way that the project itself has an impact on the Capital Area (a methodological intervention in terms of how science can be conducted).

CACVoices (http://cacvoices.wide.msu.edu) is the network that is the focus of this project. The site has been redesigned to better support the work of community organizations and community members. The WIDE research team provides ongoing training and support to users of the site.