It's been an incredibly busy summer. Too much travel, too many deadlines. However, I have returned to the blogosphere and am ready to continue my musings on the pains (and pleasures :-)) of growing communities...
From September 29-October 1, I attended the CIRN Inaugual Conference and Colloquium in Prato, Italy. CIRN is the newly established Community Informatics Research Network. which
is an international network of researchers, practitioners and policy makers concerned with enabling communities through the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and specifically with research and practice in Community Informatics and community networking.
The purpose of the network is to promote and represent community informatics and community networking research internationally. Community Informatics lies at two cross-roads: bringing together people concerned with electronically enabling communities: local, virtual and communities of practice; and structuring collaborations between researchers and practitioners, including industry, in these three domains and to support a community based approach to the implementation of ICT systems and services including Internet access and responses to the Digital Divide.
I found the conference to be highly stimulating and attended by lots of researchers and practitioners with the right mix of idealism and realism. By joining CIRN you can help this network get the necessary clout in the scientific, business and political domains to really make a difference.
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