[Air-l] Fwd: Community Networking Initiatives, Argentina

[Steve Jones]

>  The Practice and Theory of Community Networks/Community Informatics
>
>  An Invitation for Proposals
>
>  A Refereed Workshop and Research Track
>
>  on
>
>  The Practice and Theory
>
>  of
>
>  Community Networks/Community Informatics
>
>  A Joint Presentation of
>
>  Community Network/Community Informatics Researchers and Community Networkers
>
>  For
>
>  Global CN 2001
>
>  http://www.globalcn2001.org
>
>  Buenos Aires, Argentina
>  Dec. 5th, 2001
>
>  Session coordinators: Michael Gurstein (Vancouver), Susana Finquelievich
>(Buenos Aires), Artur Serra (Barcelona).
>
>  Workshop's goals:
>
>     1.Encourage and strengthen exchange and co - operation between
>University and other researchers working with CN members world-wide
>
>     2.Strengthen the Practice and Theory of Community Networks and Community
>Informatics jointly with Community Networkers worldwide.
>
>     3.Analyse case studies of co - operation between Post-Secondary
>Institutions working with Community Networks
>
>  Proposals and papers for this workshop can be sent to:
>  propuestas at globalcn2001.org
>
>  Background:
>
>  Community Networking initiatives are being incubated, are in active social
>service and are growing in diverse geographic localities around the world.
>Global CN2001 follows
>  along the path of Global CN2000 http://www.globalcn2000.org , the first
>international community networking conference, held late last year in
>Barcelona.
>
>  Buenos Aires, the 2001 host city, will provide its cosmopolitan setting for
>a most important sharing of ideas about the diverse development of local and
>regional information
>  societies in a rapidly changing networked global environment.
>
>  The "Research Studies on Community Networking/Community Informatics"
>session is being organized to provide an academic - practitioner context and
>understanding of the
>  practical work that lies ahead for the local sphere: Universities,
>government, the marketplace and civic organizations, and a better
>understanding of individual, and collective
>  actions, information exchanges and knowledge building to support Community
>Networking.
>
>  Papers are currently being solicited that address the complex theoretical
>subject and practical applications of this conference session.
>
>  A few rhetorical questions meant to evoke possible responses include:
>
>     1.What are potential major trends in academic studies about CN? What are
>present and potential pro and con effects of joint studies on community
>networking that bring
>       together Universities and CN members?
>
>     2.What is the outlook for community networking amid evolving economic,
>cultural, and social restructuring and values? Will community networking
>become increasingly
>       reinforced by joint work with Universities? Which successes and
>failures have been registered in this area? Do community networks offer
>potential opportunities for
>       added value and vitality for academic groups / Universities?
>
>     3.How might Universities, through research, knowledge building,
>education, training, in tele-technologies and information exchange, have
>positive effects on Community
>       Networks? Which are the conditions and changes (organizational,
>financial, etc) that Universities should overcome to introduce the new
>academic and research areas
>       that are mentioned?
>
>     4.Might community networking initiatives serve as 'living laboratories'
>and examples for newly evolving and diverse local-global social and
>political processes?
>
>     5.What is contemporary understanding of Academics and practitioners
>about the character of "communities" in CNs? What are the new mechanisms
>that permit new
>       forms of social integration (community) and how these forms are
>different from classical neighborhood proximity? What are the potentials and
>limits of generating
>       "electronic community" in social contexts of poverty and inequality?
>
>     6.How can University - CN cooperation reinforce social and political
>power of marginalized communities in their struggle against social
>exclusion? How this cooperation
>       may help to increase communicational power of CNs in squatter or
>under-privileged areas? What is the role of CNs (and universities) in major
>social transformations?
>
>     7.How universities can play an important role in detecting non-local
>potential of community articulations and can provide CNs with tools which
>permit access to
>       worldwide informational and consulting resources (that's not only a
>"hardware problem")? How to understand local - global articulations of CNs
>and their potentials
>       and threads for community's identity?
>
>     8.How can academic research and discourse disseminate a broader social
>and political recognition of CN's importance as a mean of democratizing
>societies? How can
>       they put the necessity of empowering CNs onto the public agenda? How
>can public policy - in the national, regional and local level - stimulate
>and support local (or
>       non-local) CN initiatives?
>
>  Submission Guidelines:
>
>  Please email paper abstracts of no more than 400 words by June 19.
>Abstracts for papers, digital media, and other forms of participation should
>not exceed 400 words (one
>  page). They should include: the session title, presentation title, author's
>name, institution, address, telephone, e- mail and URL. They are to describe
>clearly the proposed
>  presentation, paper or activity.
>
>  Please use Arial 11 pt., at 1.5 space, page size A4.
>
>  Abstracts should be e-mailed to propuestas at globalcn2001.org, indicating the
>author's last name in the title of the message. The deadline for receipt of
>abstracts is June 19,
>  2001.
>
>  The abstracts will be evaluated by the Working Groups' Coordinators, with
>the participation of selected researchers and activists in each field. The
>Congress Secretariat will
>  communicate the results of the evaluation by August 31.
>
>  Languages:
>
>  Abstracts and papers may be written in any of the Global CN2001
>  Congress official languages: Spanish, English and French. However, due to
>translation costs, discussions in the Workshop will develop mainly in
>English and Spanish. Plenary
>  sessions will be translated to all three official languages.
>
>  Timetable:
>
>  June 19: Deadline for receipt of abstracts.
>  August 31: Communication to authors regarding the approval of the proposed
>submissions.
>  October 1: Deadline for the submission of papers.
>
>  Information:
>
>  For additional Congress information, write to the secretary of the Global
>CN2001:
>  E-mail: secretariado at globalcn2001.org
>  URL: http://www.globalcn2001.org