Telecommunications can be a powerful tool for organizing neighborhoods to solve problems.
|
|
When residents in the Stevens Square neighborhood of Minneapolis learned that local merchants were deliberately selling mouthwash to homeless alcoholics for consumption, they did not just shake their heads. They raised their concerns on SafetyNet, an online discussion forum organized by the Stevens Square Community Organization. In no time at all, they learned that people in other Minneapolis neighborhoods were also worried about the practice. The ensuing conversation quickly caught the attention of two state legislators, who agreed to work with the citizens to solve the problem. As this and countless similar events demonstrate, users of modern telecommunications are not just creating a global village. They're rebuilding local villages as well. While architects of the much-vaunted National Information Infrastructure extol the wonders of connecting individuals to the global communications network, ordinary people in places like Stevens Square are quietly establishing local networks that connect neighbors to each other. In the process, they're giving citizens a powerful new tool with which to act collectively. |
|
|
||
The civic revival movement
Efforts to increase civic engagement are more than a passing fancy. Research in fields as varied as education, urban poverty, unemployment, crime, drug abuse, health, and economic development suggests that societies in which people are heavily involved in civic affairs deal more successfully with social problems than those in which individuals are isolated from each other.
Some local government officials have picked up the banner. The city of Minneapolis has pledged $20 million a year for the next 20 years to help its 81 neighborhoods develop revitalization plans. In Portland, Ore., citizen committees help prepare the city budget. In Vermont community boards are assuming jurisdiction over some criminal cases—an idea the Stevens Square community has been considering in its online forum. And the city of Hampton, Va., sponsors a free, 10-class "college" to train community activists.
To a large extent, though, the impetus behind the civic renewal movement is coming from citizens themselves, with substantial support from the nonprofit sector. Organizations such as the Civic Practices Network, the Center for Policy Alternatives, the Communitarian Network, and the Alliance for National Renewal, to name just a few, serve as clearinghouses for local efforts.
The role of technology
What role can new telecommunications technologies play in this growing movement? A big one, argues Ed Schwartz, founder of the Philadelphia-based Institute for the Study of Civic Values. A long-time activist and former city councilman, Schwartz is author of the recent book, NetActivism: How Citizens Use the Internet, which explores how modern telecommunications can be used to foster civic engagement.
"Radio and television concentrated power in the hands of the elite, who can broadcast to us even though we can no longer connect with one another," Schwartz argues. Those older technologies "left us with little to do but applaud or boo in our living rooms . . . without feeling any connection to the process whatsoever," he says. But "the new technologies permit millions of us to find one another and to turn the transmitters around."
Schwartz's personal technology of choice is the listserv, or electronic mailing list, which allows large groups of people to exchange information. It is hard to imagine a more democratic means of communication; on a listserv, anybody can speak, and everybody can listen. "We can use email to establish ongoing discussions within our civic and political organizations, thereby strengthening the relationships among group members and attachment to the group itself," says Schwartz.
Getting started
Community leaders in diverse places are starting to explore how new telecommunications technologies could be used to strengthen communities. In Charlotte, N.C., the regional community network Charlotte's Web has launched an "electronic neighborhood" project that provides special training in computer networking for graduates of a leadership program at a local community college. In Wichita, Kan., a neighborhood association called Wichita Independent Neighborhoods has created a "citizens land use academy" to train activists in land use, urban planning, and commercial development processes.
Meanwhile, various departments of city government in Portland, Ore., have formed a "regional information technology networking group" to consider ways in which new communications tools can help get information out to different constituencies and enable them to respond. Celia Heron, citizen involvement coordinator for the city's Office of Neighborhood Associations, believes that computer networks may be particularly effective in helping organizers reach various "communities without boundaries"—diverse immigrant and refugee populations and demographic groups such as teenagers, people who are HIV-positive, and others—who share common interests and concerns but do not always live in the same neighborhoods.
All these efforts are in embryonic stages, and it is too early to say what results they ultimately will have. But their advocates share a conviction that telecommunications technologies can be a powerful tool for building local communities. To that end, Brandeis University and the Urban Strategies Council, an Oakland, Calif., group, are publishing a "Community Builders Guide to Telecommunications" this spring. The volume will offer practical advice to community leaders on how to define their communications needs and work with other stakeholders to achieve them.
Real and virtual communities
Ultimately, the test of new information technologies will take place in neighborhoods. While some technology critics worry that global communications networks can isolate individuals from their neighbors and weaken community bonds, interaction on neighborhood networks often leads to face-to-face meetings and stronger local ties. Back in Minneapolis, for instance, the Stevens Square Community Organization reports that it has attracted about 30 new volunteers for real-life neighborhood patrols since it set up its home page in early 1995.
"People say [computer-based telecommunications] is isolating, but I don't see that," says Nolan Venkatrathnam, the neighborhood's safety coordinator. "I'm meeting more people than ever."
Neighborhoods Online
Looking for a volunteer opportunity? Neighborhoods Online recommends using the Contact Center Guide, a directory of 8,000 nonprofit organization websites that lists countless volunteer opportunities. Want the latest on welfare reform? HandsNet, a website geared largely to human services professionals, has the latest information and a wealth of additional links. Need basic demographic data about your community? Neighborhoods Online links you to the Census Bureau, whose entire database can be searched by zip code. Interested in housing issues? Try HUD User, a database on housing, building technology, economic development, and urban planning that is maintained by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Or are you simply looking for people interested in the same issues as you? Neighborhoods Online hosts some email lists of its own, and directs users to others. But if you want to cast a wider net for a conversation that suits you, there's Liszt, a searchable directory of more than 65,000 mailing lists. Neighborhoods Online is the brainchild of activist Ed Schwartz. An unabashed advocate of local activism, Schwartz believes that communities should join together to help shape a national neighborhood agenda. For a compilation of federal policies and programs affecting jobs, education, the environment, economic development, and more, look up "Rebuilding America's Communities: A National Neighborhood Agenda" on the Neighborhoods Online website. |
One of the best lists of online resources for community activists is 
The real test of online communities is whether they strengthen offline communities. The Stevens Square Community Organization has found that the electronic discussions on SafetyNet help residents fix real problems in the neighborhood.
|
Contents | Communities resources | Next | 
|