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Community technology
Almost sexy
BY RICHARD JAEGGI
I recently attended a national
conference entitled Shaping the Future of Community Technology.
Now, in the interest of disclosure, I will admit that I actually
work in this esoteric field and so have a vague notion of
what this conference was about–but I am guessing that
you, dear reader, informed person though you are, have not
a clue about community technology, and have never fired
a single synapse on the subject of shaping its future.
The very phrase itself causes the eyebrows to arch of their
own accord. Community technology. The two words are
so dissonant. You have a warm and fuzzy separated by a mere
space from a cold and hard; pure heart yoked to pure head.
Even more disconcerting is the inescapable fact that these
are the two most overused abstract nouns in the English language.
In a highly scientific inquiry that I conducted just this
morning, I ran a Google search on some nouns. The results
were: God (45 million hits), money (60 million hits), technology
(75 million hits), community (90 million hits), sex (104 million
hits). Conclusion: community and technology are the second
and third most overused abstract nouns in the English
language.
Forget about sex for a minute. Everything is being transformed
by technology: science, business, government, military. Technology
is everywhere–it is the water we swim in. Technology
is the cause; technology is the effect. Technology is the
hope; technology is the curse. Technology colors everything,
shapes everything, drives everything. Like kids on a whirlabout,
we less-than-Bill-Gates hominids have no illusions about being
in control. The question was never about "Where do I
want to go today?" It has always been "How do I
hold on and not get smashed to pieces?"
Forget about sex for another minute. We use the word community
to reference every possible commonality: the science community,
the business community, this or that community of concern.
However, although these are large groups of people who may
share a common world view, they really function as a culture,
rather than a community.
At least in the traditional sense of the word, community
was always centered on a place. It was the place that gave
people a common connection, despite economic, philosophical,
and sometimes even cultural differences. I suspect that when
we use the word community as often as we do, we are
mostly speaking the language of loss: grief for the heavy
price we have paid for our culture of individualism. That
is why there is so much talk about "building community."
OK, so what is community technology? (You didn’t think
I was going to talk about sex, did you?) The community technology
movement began two decades ago when a handful of tech types
began to introduce computer technology into the world of nonprofits.
Word processing, spreadsheets, and mailing databases gradually
became tools that helped nonprofit organizations become more
effective in doing what they already knew how to do.
In its next iteration community technology began to wrestle
with the challenge of the "Digital Divide." If digital
communications were going to dominate the animus of the information
age then how do we make sure that technology becomes a bridge
for the disadvantaged and not a moat for the technical elite.
"Access" to computers and internet technology were
the watchwords of the digital divide movement.
For the last several years, the community technology movement
has been wrestling with the realization that technology in
and of itself can create nothing, least of all community.
How, then, can technology–that is, computers, the Internet,
and the whole gamut of communication technologies–serve
the largely grassroots effort to strengthen existing communities
and foster new ones?
The response has been thousands of pioneer efforts that range
from a distance learning project (taking classes over the
Internet) in Africa, to a national project that uses GIS mapping
to help local communities advocate issues, to community media
projects (like the one I run in Washington) that use video,
music, graphic arts and web design as youth development tools.
The common thread through all these projects is the simple
truth that technology is always secondary to the hopes and
dreams of real people, and that the value of technology is
not restricted to commercial enterprise. Our area, in spite
of–and maybe because of–its self-professed technical
sophistication, is not at the forefront of the community technology
movement. Illinois has already recognized the potential of
community technology and has drafted legislation that establishes
funding streams to support the work. Some cities–Austin
and Seattle, for instance–have community technology strategies,
even staff members that coordinate local effort. Washington,
D.C. is far ahead of the suburbs in the number of operational
community technology centers; but even here, in Silver Spring,
there are number of small projects that function wholly or
in part like community technology centers.
The Long Branch Recreation Center hosts a community computer
center. Both the YMCA and the Community Preservation &
Development Corporation operate residential technology centers
in Langley Park. Pyramid Atlantic has plans to include a digital
media lab as part of its studio facilities.
But Silver Spring’s big break in the field of community
technology lies in the opportunity to establish a community
technology center in the new town center, specifically in
the civic building that will be built on the corner of Fenton
and Ellsworth two years from now. The program of requirements
calls for a 1,200 square foot multimedia center; as yet, nothing
has been determined about what programs will be offered there
or who will run them.
The possibilities are enthralling. Computer classrooms could
offer instruction in everything from ESL for recent immigrants
to digital photography for seniors. A public media resource
center could offer a digital music-recording studio for youth,
desktop publishing for small businesses, and community web
page hosting for nonprofits. Local historians and veterans’
groups could compile an audio-video media library, amateur
videographers could teach each other digital editing, graphic
artists could display their work both on and off-line, and
the whole community would have an information hub that was
at the same time both virtual and real.
We already have Discovery Communications, the American Film
Institute, and a rich cultural diversity; Silver Spring now
has a unique opportunity to become a pioneer in the field
of open-access, community-focused media. It may not be sex,
but its pretty sexy, and it just might be the future of community
technology. If you think you have what it takes to be a pioneer
on the frontier of community technology, send an email to
rjaeggi@bigacorn.com.
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