[Air-L] Inclusion

[Steven Clift]

I'd like to compare notes with researchers exploring the use of social
media/online forums in lower income/diverse/high immigrant neighborhoods.

E-Democracy.org has some new Ford Foundation funding to deepen our current
efforts in Cedar Riverside in Minneapolis (large East African population)
and Frogtown in St. Paul (large SE Asian, and African-American communities):
http://e-democracy.org/inclusion

Our goal is the create an integrative online experience that reflects the
diversity of the area both in terms of registrants and with shared content.
Part one in terms of registration, aided by in-person outreach (documented
extensively on our blog - see link just above) happened over the previous
year. Part two includes activities of our part-time "Community Outreach and
Information Leaders" that I just hired to work with community groups and
participants to spur diverse exchange. We use a mix of e-mail/web with
forums piped into Facebook Fan pages and Twitter as well.

Who has been active in this niche - either neighborhood activities online in
general (I know about Keith Hampton's good work) or more specifically in
working with content/exchange online for inclusion. (Going well beyond the
computer training and access paradigm.) I am interested in both researchers
and projects you know about.

Please also reply to clift at e-democracy.org so I don't miss your reply.

Cheers,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org

P.S. We do have some coding projects exploring the next generation of
nearest neighbor connections online emerging:
http://e-democracy.org/neighborly - Also note
http://pages.e-democracy.org/Block_activities