Community informatics

Community informatics (CI), also known as community networking, electronic community networking, community-based technologies, community technology or grassroots computing refers to an emerging field of investigation and practice concerned with information and communication technology (ICT) in relation to communities and their social, cultural, service development, economic and other dimensions. It is formally located as an academic discipline within a variety of academic faculties including information science, information systems, computer science, planning, development studies, and library science among others and draws on insights on community development from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. It is an interdisciplinary approach interested in using ICTs for different forms of community action, as distinct from pure academic study about ICT effects. It is the application of information and communication technology to enable and empower community processes.

Most humans live in communities. In some urban areas, community and neighborhood are conflated but this may be a limited definition. Communities are defined as people coming together in pursuit of common aims or shared practices through any means, including physical, electronic, and social networks. They proliferate even while the ability to define them is amorphous.

Cultures ensure their growth and survival by continuing the norms and mores that are the bases of their way of life. Communities can use the infrastructure of ICTs as a method of continuing cultures within the context of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Once a cultural identity is defined within the context of these technologies, it can be replicated and disseminated through various means, including the sharing of information through websites, applications, databases, and file sharing. In this manner, a group that defines its cultural identity within the construct of technology infrastructure is empowered to hold valuable exchanges within the spheres of economics, political power, high and popular culture, education, and entertainment.

Since the inception of the Internet and the World Wide Web, we have seen the exponential growth of enterprises ranging from electronic commerce, social networking, entertainment and education, as well as a myriad of other contrivances and file exchanges that allow for an ongoing cultural enrichment through technology. However, there has been a general lag as to which populations can benefit through these services through impediments such as geographic location, a lack of funds, gaps in technology and the expertise and skills that are required to operate these systems.

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