Why?
Since the early 90s I have worked in and with community-based organisations in various information, community development, and research roles, including a number of technology innovations. With the advent of the internet, I saw great opportunities for change -- and also great challenges to how we do our work.
I began to become interested in how we know what we are doing with technology, is 'right', 'wrong', or somewhere in between. I'm particularly interested in how we know what is valuable to both communities and people (usually government) who support such initiatives. They aren't always the same thing. Different discourse frames and power relations mean that very different world views are frequently at stage (and all the shades therein). I've also become active with various networks of practitioners and researchers locally and internationally. A lot of my time has been engaged in organising conferences and workshops because much of what we do and understand doesn't make for easy writing or documentation. It's also an obvious truth that nothing works as well as people getting together and--networking! We are engaged in not just simple research, but applied action and research.
I'll add content as time permits.
You might like to look at the piece on 'community informatics' (the academic term that is bandied around these days) that I started off in Wikipedia, and add to it.
I've also got a few political obsessions which fill my blog.
Equality and the Freedom of Religion
Another viewpoint published in the Liberty Victoria magazine about the censorship of opposing ideas.
What about Internet Censorship?
I'm on the Committee of Liberty Victoria, and I recently published an opinion piece about proposed internet filtering and censorship in Australia. The government is taking a pretty crude and misinformed approach. It's a great pity that there is such a low level of policy advice, but it has been consistently low for about a decade.
Empowerment: Prato Conference 2009
The Prato community informatics is going ahead again this year, at the start of November.
We will be talking about the following.
The idea of 'empowerment' has a number of special connotations in the Community Informatics space. Community Informatics is an approach to empowering communities with information and communication technologies. There is a widespread expectation that Community Informatics will enhance democracy, develop social capital, build communities, develop economies and empower individuals and groups, and result in many different forms of social change. Community Informatics, in bringing together communities and technologies, works across at least three dimensions, though there may be others which are relevant.
For details, see the information page.
Commentary: Is It Web 2.0 or Is It Better Information and Knowledge That We Need?
Stillman, L. and J. McGrath (2008). "Is It Web 2.0 or Is It Better Information and Knowledge That We Need?." Australian Social Work 421-428(61): 4.
For copyright reasons, this file cannot be saved, printed, or copied. You will need to access your university's subscription to ASW for complete access.
Representing Practice Wisdom: Adapting Corporate Modelling for Better Welfare Practice
Stillman, L., S. Kethers, R. French and D. Lombard (2008). Representing Practice Wisdom: Adapting Corporate Modelling for Better Welfare Practice. 10th Australian Conference for Knowledge Management & Intelligent Decision Support. Ballarat.
Radio interview about the Digital Doorway
On 1 December I was interviewed by the Coodabeen Champions on Australian ABC breakfast radio about the Digital Doorway. It's a brief interview which gives some key points about the potential for the Digital Doorway in different places. You can download or stream the mp3 attachment which is only for private non-profit, personal use of course.
New Feature on the Digital Doorway Project
The Monash University Magazine has featured the Digital Doorway Project in its November 2008 issue. There is increasing interest in the project as a robust communications solution option to be considered by communities in remote Australia.
