There is it appears, two worlds of "Open Government Data"--one the world of smart phones, and Ipads, of apps and upscale "demographics" of interest to sponsors like Proctor and Gamble; and the contrasting world of slum dwellers without access to sanitation, of populations subject to systematic mal-and even corrupt administration --worlds where app providers and the folks who make the OGD available to them go public with multi-million dollar IPO's and ones where those with the courage to pursue public information may be putting their lives at risk.
This issue of The Journal of Community Informatics (JoCI) deals with research relationships between universities and university based ICT researchers and communities. These matters are, of course of central significance to Community Informatics since much of CI is, in one form or another, linked into this type of relationship.
I am delighted and honoured as editor of the Journal of Community Informatics to publish a special double issue on The Internet and Community Informatics in Brazil. The issue itself is a very strong one and I think it both represents and solidifies the very strong Community Informatics range of activities and traditions in Brazil while pointing to certain characteristics of Community Informatics in Brazil that are potentially of interest and importance for the rest of the world.
But in looking at this array of attractive intellectual baubles I’m left with one nagging concern. Amidst all this media and networking and mobility what exactly will be the content of this “Twenty-first Century University as global learning network”? Where will the content come from, that will constitute the “learning” component of this learning network? How exactly will the promise implicit in this statement—“digital learning is increasingly recognized as an important part of development worldwide” be realized in fact, and by whom, and ultimately in whose interests?
I’m just back from a variety of recent travels--lecturing, workshopping, seminaring, meeting with academics and researchers in various parts of the Asian less developed countries (LDCs). Specifically I was invited to discuss community informatics with academics/researchers in 3 universities in 3 rather different regions of Asia.
In reflecting on these meetings I realized the very strong strain of consistency in our discussions. In each instance, the academics, almost all of whom had recent Ph.D.s from research universities in Developed Countries (DC’s) returned home to find that their recently acquired skills and areas of expert knowledge were of little direct value in their home environments.
Michael Geist, a frequent commentator on Canadian telecom and Information and Communication Technology related policy issues, has provided a list of issues he would like to see addressed in Canada`s upcoming national election. On looking at his list, especially in light of what I consider to be the major (policy and other) deficiencies in Canada`s […]
In an important article in the current issue of the Journal of Community Informatics , Hungarian Sociologists Csótó Mihály and Szilárd Molnár examine the development of the “Information Society” in Hungary from the perspective of those who are being left behind in its development and the impact that this is having on innovation and development in Hungary as whole. Their analysis and observations have relevance far beyond Hungary or even Europe and link quite directly into a similarly important newspaper article on the recurring Digital Divide among Afro-Americans and Hispanics in the US, by Jeffrey Washington of Associated Press and reprinted in USA Today and the Washington Post among other places.
I'm not sure what anyone else thinks, but this proposal which is an attempt to get major funding to do very very large scale social simulations based on real time data of social phenomena is currently up for EU research funding. This seems to me to be extremely questionable from a variety of perspectives.
An even more intriguing possibility would be the fusing of existing rural (political) organizational structures with ICTs and envigorated with new blood from the “ant tribe” and other young people with Internet and ICT skills leading to a rural renewal, extended service delivery and both more efficient and sustainable agricultural and SMME and SME developments. Perhaps once the attention of the Chinese leadership shifts back from the explosive developments in urban areas similar structural developments might begin to be seen in rural areas and among lower income populations as well.
Issues of gender are at the very heart of community informatics just as they are at the very heart of community and communities. Gender-based differences in opportunities for access, differences in required uses, differences in strategies for appropriation are all central to an understanding of how ICT can enable communities.
Gurstein's Community Informatics 
April 10, 2012
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