…is currently Executive Director of the Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training (Vancouver BC). Canadian, he completed a B.A. at the University of Saskatchewan and a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Cambridge.
From 1995 to 1999 Dr. Gurstein was the NSERC/SSHRC Associate Chair in the Management of Technological Change at the University College of Cape Breton, where he pioneered in the development of sustainable community-based technology applications. He also was formerly Research Professor at the Universite de Quebec, Outaouais and Clinical Professor in the School of Management at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is currently
Adjunct Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia.
His edited book “Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies: (Idea Group, 2000) provided a focal point for the development of “Community Informatics” as the discipline concerned with enabling communities with Information and Communications Technologies. He was formerly on the Steering Committee of the Global Telecentre Alliance, and on the High Level Panel of Advisors of the United Nation’s Global Alliance for ICT for Development.
He is the Founding Editor in Chief of the Journal of Community Informatics http://ci-journal.net and Foundation Chair of the Community Informatics Research Network. He has consulted in the area of ICT for Development to the governments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Nepal, South Africa and Jordan and to the African Union, the Ford Foundation, the UN Development Program, and the European Union among others. He has lectured on all 5 continents including at Harvard, Cambridge, Berkley, University of Southern California, University of Columbo, Kyushu University, University of Brunei, University of Sao Paulo, and the Information Technology Institute (Cairo) among others. His most recent (co-edited) book is “Connecting Canadians: Investigations in Community Informatics”, Athabaska U. Pr. (2012).
His book “What is Community Informatics and Why Does It Matter” Politechnia, Milan (2007) may be found at:
http://eprints.rclis.org/12372/1/WHAT_IS_COMMUNITY_INFORMATICS_reading.pdf
Additional information may be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gurstein
Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
gurstein@gmail.com
Director: Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training
Vancouver, CANADA
http://www.communityinformatics.net
CA tel. +1-604-602-0624
Twitter: @michaelgurstein
Gurstein's Community Informatics 
Shannon Otoole
February 18, 2012
I truly appreciate this blog post. Really Great.
Candace Parker
December 15, 2015
Hi Michael,
Sorting through my storage room as I prepare for a move to Powell River (from North Vancouver), I am reading a copy of a letter you wrote to “Mr. David Anderson, Leader, Provincial Liberal Party” on Feb. 19, 1974 – confirming his appearance at the “BC: Power & Politics” CSAA-sponsored conference at UVic that I chaired & in which you were also involved. Do you remember? We were trying to encourage scholarship about Canadian issues! Did you ever keep a copy of the papers that were produced (I believe Dr. Pat Marchak collected them in a special journal of the Canadian Journal of Sociology – i ‘ll try to track it down, maybe…..
Best,
Candace Parker (formerly Candy/Candace Hanson)
Michael Gurstein
January 7, 2016
Hi Candace, Very nice to hear from you and sorry to be so long getting back (I’ve been quite ill… I’m afraid I really don’t remember that meeting. I guess it was while I was working for the BC Government. I’ve moved so many times since that any record I might will have been lost long ago and while I remember a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Sociology I remember it as growing out of a meeting at the Learneds’ (maybe that is what you are referring to. Anyway, maybe we could pursue this discussion via email (my preferred mode 🙂 email address gurstein@gmail.com
Best,
Mike.