Community Networking Conference, page 2 First Day of Conference The conference was set up with a few days of presentations (and some Q&A) by people running civic networks or similar systems in Finland, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, as well as four places in Italy. The first session began with Artur Serra, one of the prime organizers of the conference and the head of BCNet, Barcelona's Civic Network. In Spain and Italy the word "civic" is preferable to "community". Serra has been working at many levels: with working-class neighborhoods in North Barcelona; with city hall, which participates in the EC's Telecities project; with the Mediterranean area; and finally with the Internet Society which he thinks should focus on local community efforts such as CNs. Some of the EC projects are specifically aimed at eliminating social exclusion: that is,they seek to include as many citizens as possible in the Information Society. EPITELIO is a Spanish effort that supports CNs as part of its efforts to include immigrants, rural areas, prisoners, AIDS patients, women's groups, housing cooperatives, prisons, and libraries. The other networks were represented by people from France, the United Kingdom, Holland, Tarragona, Spain, and Italy. On Saturday, Gunter Woltron, who helped plan a community networking conference in Austria, attended. He now works for Municipia, a European Commission project from TURA (Telematics for Urban and Rural Areas) Speakers from the municipality of Milan, the region of Lombardy, and the European Commission spoke with knowledge and enthusiasm about community networking. Their talks were more than "welcome to Milan/Italy/Europe." Horace Mitchell, European Telework Development, seemed self-conscious about the Eurospeak that is the mark of European Commission policy documents: "create a user-friendly information society" and similar catchy phrases laced the slides. He encouraged those present to become involved because of greater roles for general citizens. What they can do to fix the problems of unemployment is unclear, but CNs can spread the news about programs in telework, teletrade, and telecooperation. There seemed to be a mixed view of the efficacy of EC programs, at least from the point of view of the local community networkers, but most felt that input of the local community would help make the European programs more "authentic." I gave a talk called "Community Networking Weather Report" with a look at four factors that determine the future of CN in North America: legislation/regulations, economics, technology, and social forces. I speculated that the technology was the only common factor that would be shared in Europe. Doug Schuler, Seattle Community Network, gave a presentation called "How to Kill Community Networks (and How to Save Them)" with a plea for more democratic involvement by citizens and nonprofit organizations. In his home town of Seattle the group Sustainable Seattle has established indicators to help people answer the basic question of what kind of community they want to live in. He sees government and business as having a much smaller role in these networks than do many of the Europeans. Continue Overview | Digital Photography Course | Science with eMates | Spotlight Essay | Book Review | Community Networking | INET '97 | News Page One | Find It | Apple Computer, Inc. | Contact Us | Help