Networked Neighbourhoods: The Connected Community in Context

ISBN-13: 9781849965675 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 430 str.

Patrick Purcell

Opis

The intricate relationship between information technologies, community, and social memory is critical to a fuller understanding of the evolution of our societies. Telecommunications and information technologies modify the process of accessing and storing data and knowledge, and consequently they also modify our relationship with both social and historical m- ory. Our various virtual communities continue to expand on a planetary scale, and hence the neologism Global Village, while concurrently, their physical counterparts are progressively being contained within speci?c contexts and places, often referred to as a process of localization . And then, there is the unpredictable evolution of today s communication s- tems, an evolution that has been de?ned by Albert Einstein as the third bomb of the 20th century, after the atomic bomb and the demographic bomb. Therefore, as communication systems continue to develop, we face new scenarioswithimpreciseboundaries, thatleadtoendlessnewopportunities for establishing the relationship between social memory, community, and information systems. How can the knowledge process dynamic, together with the storing and transmitting of information, sounds, and images through digital devices, affect the communal memory and the way we both conceive of and create communities? We have at least three emerging paradigms that help us to understand the phenomena concerning the evolution of social memory linked with the recent diffusion of communication technologies."

Recenzje

From the reviews:

"This book will interest our readers who are working in the fields of sociocybernetics as well as those with a bias towards online interactions. ... In many ways this text has been opened up new ground and is the fore-runner of many more that will consider the issues of people and their connection to the new technology. ... it provides an instructive read with the relevant collected, articles well matched and presented by the editor." (D. M. Hutton, Kybernetes, Vol. 37 (2), 2008)

Spis treści

List of Contributors A: NETWORKS & NEIGHBOURS Chap 1 : 'Networked Neighbourhoods: A Purview' - Patrick Purcell B: CONNECTED COMMUNITY Chap 2: 'Community Practice in the Network Society: Pathways Toward Civic Intelligence' - Peter Day and Douglas Schuler Chap 3: 'Social Networks & the Nature of Communities' - Howard Rheingold Chap 4: 'Community Informatics for Community Development: Hope or Hype?' - William Pitkin Chap 5: 'Knowledge and the Local Community' - Alan McCluskey Chap 6: 'Connected Memories in a Networked Digital Era : a moving paradigm' - Federico Casalegno Chap 7: 'Community and Communication: A rounded perspective' - Jennifer Kayahara C: THE RESEARCH IMPETUS Chap 8: 'Connected Lives: the project' - Barry Wellman and Bernie Hogan with Kristen Berg, Jeffrey Boase, Juan-Antonio Carrasco, Rochelle Côté, Jennifer Kayahara, Tracy L. M. Kennedy and Phuoc Tran Chap 9: 'The Impact of the Internet on Local and Distant Social Ties' - A. Kavanaugh, T.T. Zin, M.B. Rosson and J.M. Carroll Chap 10: 'The Magic Lounge: Connecting Island Communities Through Varied Communication Services' - Thomas Rist, Niels Ole Bernsen, Jean-Claude Martin Chap 11: 'The Digital Hug: Enhancing Emotional Communication Through Creative Scenarios' - Verena Seibert Giller, Manfred Tscheligi, Reinhard Sefelin, Anu Kankainen Chap 12: 'Ambient Intelligence: Human - Agent Interactions in a Networked Community' - Kostas Stathis, Oscar de Bruijn, Robert Spence, Patrick Purcell D: MEDIATED HUMAN COMMUNICATION Chap 13: 'Beyond Communication: Human Connectedness as a Research Agenda' - Stefan Agamanolis Chap 14: 'Presence: helping older people to engage with their local communities' - William Gaver, Jacob Beaver Chap 15: 'Enhancing Community Communication: the role of interactive displays in comparable settings' - Antonietta Grasso, Frederic Roulland, Dave Snowdon Chap 16: 'Serving Visitor Communities: AMediated Experience of the Arts' - Patrizia Marti, Gregory O’Hare, Michael O'Grady, Massimo Zancanaro, Elena Not, Alberto Bianchi, Mick O’Donnell

Blurb

The setting for this book is the networked community. The treatment of the subject matter is broad and interdisciplinary, with contributions from computer science, sociology, design, human factors and communication technology.

The chapter contributors, drawn from across Europe and North America, offer a varied prospectus of commentary, critique, sociological enquiry, technological development and research findings, which provides a rounded account of the progressive intermingling of social and electronic networks.

The contributors discuss the ways in which the Internet affects both familial and social relationships, communal and civic involvement, social capital and work patterns and lifestyle. Civic intelligence is presented as a nascent concept from which future social networks of increased public advocacy, scrutiny and action may be sourced. Other reported developments include agent-based community systems to model and support communal memory and social knowledge.

The opening section provides a purview of the broad scene covered by the book, followed by discussions about the current state of connected communities. Following this there are case studies illustrating the different aspects of research, both sociological and technological, in this area. The final part reports the variety and the scope of technology-mediated human-to-human communication in a connected community setting today.

 

 

Patrick Purcell is a Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, where he is a member of the Intelligent Systems and Networks Group.