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New Community Networks: Wired for Change
(ACM/Addison-Wesley, New York, 1996)
Preface
This book examines both community and technology but it is more concerned about community than it is about technology. It takes the position that technology is a tool that can serve humanity. Too frequently, however, humanity seems to be the servant of technology. We as concerned community members need to reassert ourselves into the design process, to reorient the focus appropriately. We should not think of technology as an end in itself or as an autonomous force; nor should we exalt the machine at the expense of the human and the humane. With those values and perspectives centermost, this book is concerned with designing technology that helps people work together more effectively and more creatively. It is about creating a future where human conviviality, ingenuity, and compassion can be encouraged to flower. Above all, it is about potential and possibilities.
Communication is at the core of almost all aspects of modern life. Education and health care rely upon it, as do everyday work and community life, and democratic governance. Since new communication technology does offer significant opportunities - as well as grave risks - and because the form of the communication infrastructure of tomorrow is being shaped today, it is critical that people from all walks of life play more active roles in this crucial transition period.
New computer-networking technology currently has many attributes that could undergird communication and technology that is truly democratic. Since it supports "many-to-many" communication, community, regional, national, and even international "conversations" on any topic are possible. This new medium is unlike traditional media like newspapers and television that are "one-to-many" (broadcast), or telephones and letter writing that are usually "one-to-one." These new systems can also dispense with traditional gatekeepers both corporate (who naturally and reflexively prioritize profit-making over the public good) or governmental (who may decide to supersede freedom of speech and expression for "national security," "decency," or a number of other ostensibly good reasons).
Although I argue for the development of democratic technology in general, this book is focused on the development of community computer networks, a concrete manifestation of democratic technology that demands our attention right now.These systems are not utopian pie in the sky. Five hundred thousand people currently use community networks and people have launched projects in hundredsof cities and regions in the United States and around the world. These are communication systems that can be developed bythe community and for the community. They can be built and maintained inexpensively so access to them can be free. They can be designed so that "ordinary citizens" can use them to publish as well as to subscribe to a truly public media under local control. They can be part of an overall democratic renaissance and civic revitalization. Community networks can become important civic institutions that complement the public library and other community and civic assets. But they will not be created without determination and persistence. There is nothing inevitable about community network systems.
A Meliorist Stance
In this book, I take a melioriststance. Meliorism assumes that things can get better, but onlyif people act to ensure that outcome. Meliorism is a pragmatic viewpoint, a problem-solving viewpoint. It does not ignore problems or explain them away with platitudes or ideology. The opposite of meliorism is fatalism, the doctrine that claims that the trajectory of human history is irrevocably set by powerful forces beyond human influence. Today there are fatalists of all kinds. Some feel that technology is intrinsically evil and is leading us ever closer to disaster. Others believe that technology is an unqualified boon, and that the newer, faster, shinier, and more powerful the technology is, the sooner we'll arrive at our utopian destination.
People, of course, do influence the course of the future in large and small ways through their actions. Increasingly, however, many critical decisions are made out of the public view and are oblivious of, and insensitive to, the public good. This need not be the case. Democracy is a tool of publicdeliberation and decision-making. It is a tool of meliorism. Today, unfortunately, we are finding that the tool of democracy is becoming increasingly misunderstood, underused, irrelevant, and blunt. It may also be the case that people have lost the skill and/or the desire to wield the tool. If there is to be a democratic revival in which people begin to increase their motivation and effectiveness, community computer networks and the struggle to develop them may play a major role.
Who Should Read This Book?
This book is intended for a wide audience of people who are interested in telecommunications technology as a tool to strengthen and reinvigorate community. This group of people may include librarians, educators (both K-12 and higher education); elected officials and other government employees; journalists; social change activists; students; business people; and people active in their communities; people in the computer or communications industry; minority and alternative-community members; doctors, nurses, and other health workers; people interested in computer networks, social change, the future of democracy, the revitalization of community or - as a matter of fact - just about anyone. I also hope that the book can introduce some critical issues, insight, or controversy into college and university courses. These courses may include computer science, architecture and urban planning, library and information sciences, sociology, public affairs and policy, public health and nursing, urban studies, political science, economics, communications and media studies, and science technology and society (STS) studies.
Historical Context
Historically, the most significant aspect of our era is the ending of the Cold War. While this should be a cause for elation, this global realignment has seemingly left many people - including many in government - confused and with little sense of direction. And what could have been have been viewed as a unique opportunity to use the resources no longer required for war - the so-called peace dividend - in ways that benefit society such as improved schools, access to higher education, health promotion, economic development, and libraries - has apparently evaporated.
The other significant force is that of global economic competition and the concentration of economic power into multinational behemoths and trading blocs. In this post-Cold War age, everyday citizens are increasingly becoming passive observers while huge global forces are changing, possibly irrevocably, communities and the lives of the people within them. This moment in time offers ample opportunities as well as powerful threats; it offers a compelling invitation for meliorists, to make a difference in this moment of historic transition.
Community Orientation
Communities are the right scale for many human endeavors. In this book I argue that community computer networks are an important community resource that should be built by the community. A global - or even national or state - scale is too large because there would be no allowance for particulars. Endeavors of that magnitude are too large, too distant, too inefficient, and too difficult to participate in.
Although we focus on community, the prototypical traditional - and static - community will play a limited role. Instead, a new type of community must be built that combines aspects of the old and the new. This new community must rest on a solid foundation of principles and values. It must be flexible and adaptable. It must be intelligent and creative. It must be wily. And it must be inclusive: Everybody must be allowed to participate.
While building the new community, we need to be pragmatic with respect to government and business. Both institutions are comprised of human beings - both have important functions and neither will go away in the near future. While building our new communities we will need to simultaneously engage both of these groups. Since both institutions ostensibly exist to provide services for people and communities, we must begin a serious and prolonged campaign to assert and improve this relationship. These institutions must be accountable to the people - rather than the reverse.
Organization of the Book
The first chapter introduces many of the main issues that will be explored in the rest of the book, including community and its relationship to technology. In this chapter I discuss the need for a "new community" that is built upon aspects of older, traditional communities, but is more "conscious" and is oriented toward flexibility, inclusivity, action, and sustainability. This chapter also introduces the six "core values" that form the foundation of this new community including (1) conviviality and culture; (2) education; (3) strong democracy; (4) health and human services; (5) economic equity, opportunity, and sustainability; and (6) information and communication. Finally, I introduce community computer networks as an appropriate technology for new communities and we take a short tour of the Cleveland Free-Net, the largest community network in the world.
Each of the next six chapters (2 - 7) is devoted to one of the six core values. In a sometimes roundabout way, each chapter presents four types of information: dysfunctional or declining aspects of the core value; prescriptive advice on stemming or reversing these trends; case studies of community networks or community-network projects that demonstrate interesting and/or successful approaches to the core value being examined; and, finally, an "agenda for action" for strengthening the community core value being discussed.
The next two chapters (8 - 9) take a slightly different approach by placing the existing or planned community network into a context,then examining the major entities in this context and discussing their relationship to community networks. Each chapter examines a special type of context - Chapter 8 examines the socialcontext or architecture, while Chapter 9 examines the technologicalarchitecture of a community network. Two words of warning on Chapter 9: (1) It is the most technical of all the chapters and may safely be skipped by those not interested in this aspect; and (2) at the same time, it's not comprehensive enough to provide an unerring recipe (nor does one exist) for creating the perfect platform for hosting community networks. But hopefully the chapter has enough useful heuristics and insights to make it worth the read by technophiles and technophobes alike.
Chapter 10 is probably the most pragmatic of the chapters, as it describes the stages in the life-cycle of a community network. This includes establishing a group, running the network, implementing projects and programs, building strategic alliances within the community, organizing and planning, inaugurating the community network, evaluating the community network, and ensuring long-term impact and sustainability. The impact and sustainability section discusses some of the most important issues facing community networks today, including the critical question of funding.
Chapter 11, the book's concluding chapter, Directions and Implications, contains some glimpses of possible futures and how the university, the library, and the government (among others) could play a part in the movement towards democratic technology. The chapter concludes with a short section on why it's important to become active in the struggle to develop democratic technology and offers some suggestions. This book is notintended for armchair edification or amusement. The ideas discussed in the book have a chance to become realized only if there is a strong and sustained struggle.
Finally, I've provided a bibliography and numerous appendixes. The appendixes contain some useful pointers to organizations, electronic resources, community networks, hardware and software, and some documents from the Seattle Community Network project. There is also an appendix that describes the Sustainable Seattle project and the social contract ideas of Philadelphia activist Ed Schwartz as they relate to community participatory action research. All the appendixes are designed to provide useful informa tion for the community activist, budding, lapsed, or current. Since this book is about using technology there is also a Web site (see Appendix B) that contains much of the information that can be found in the appendixes as well as some additional information. I'd like to thank the Morino Institute for support with the Web site.
Motivation and Purpose
This book is notintended to be a cookbook for community networks. The hardware, software, and development methodology are all indispensable, of course, to creating community networks, but the most important aspects of a community network, to my mind, are the involvement of community members and organizations in the process and the ability of the system to address realworld problems using primarily real(nonprofessional) people to do it. Computer networks canbe thought of as an important tool, but this is only a partial viewpoint, for it leaves many of the most critical questions unanswered. These questions center around whouses the tool and controls its use, whatpolicies guide its use, and what is the purposeof the tool. The citizens of today and tomorrow can help determine the answers to these questions.
One of the most critical questions we can ask is whether we are building new communication technologies because we can or because they can actually provide some genuine use. I believe that the potential exists to craft democratic technology, technology that can be actively used for actualization, not passively consumed out of boredom or because alternatives do not exist. I believe that these systems are sufficiently fluid and have enough "conceptual bandwidth" (as Free-Net founder Tom Grundner might say) to accommodate the commercial interests (that are dominating current development) as well as the community interests that are currently gaining strength. These community interests are vulnerable to being swamped in the coming months and years, if history is any guide.
I hope this book will be useful to you. I also hope that the dedication and vision of the developers will be as inspiring to you as they were to me. I apologize in advance for topics that I didn't cover or cover well enough and for those that received far too much ink. The field is immense - it is growing much too fast for me to capture all of it. I look forward to hearing your comments - both positive and negative - and advice. Most importantly, I look forward to working with you in the future in building a strong and effective community network movement.
Doug Schuler
Seattle, Washington
douglas@scn. org
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WORK
BY DOUG SCHULER