Summer-Fall 2001

by Paul Resnick

The University of Michigan School of Information has been building capacity for the community technology movement for many years, through its master's degree program project work, and collecting and publishing useful information resources. In the past two years, these efforts have coalesced institutionally with the formation of a Community Information Corps for current students and a Fellows program to support the professional development of graduates who do public interest work. The Alliance for Community Technology , a joint venture of the School and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, provides an umbrella for these and other activities at the intersection of academia, community serving organizations, and social investors.

The Community Information Fellows program is designed to encourage talented graduates to pursue public interest work, and to enhance their effectiveness in it. Each Fellow receives professional development assistance in the form of mentoring and travel money, and a $5000 per year stipend for five years, so long as they pursue community and public interest work. Six Fellowships have been awarded, one last year and five this year. First fellowship jobs range from support for regional workforce development to work with young adults in the Queens Public Library to producing a print and on-line newsletter from Nicaragua. Funding for this year's Fellows came from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Funding for last year's Fellow came from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation through its support of the Alliance for Community Technology. Over the next couple of years, we will be exploring the possibility of expanding the Fellows program to include master's degree students at other universities.

Karen Scheuerer, who graduated last December, co-authored a report with Laurel Sandor on information flows in the Community Technology Center movement and has recently become Director of Neighborhood Information Services with the Citizens Committee for New York City.

We would like to enlist the support of the broader technology movement in recruiting students and placing our graduates. On the recruitment side, if you know college graduates who would like to build their capacity to contribute to the community technology movement, please urge them to consider the University of Michigan School of Information. We especially encourage applications from former Americorps, Vista, and Peace Corps volunteers. On the placement side, if you have a position that would be appropriate for someone with master's degree level skills (e.g., directing a community technology center, developing and evaluating programs, managing information collections, etc.) please post it through our careers web site. Summer internship postings as well as full-time positions are welcome. There are nine internships this summer.

While students are enrolled here, they can participate in our Community Information Corps. At a weekly seminar, students present status reports about projects they are engaged in, meet visiting professionals in order to connect with national and international movements, and read and discuss works of political and social theory, to provide a larger context for understanding their work. From a full list, perhaps the most well-known that students and faculty have worked on over the past few years is the Community Connector website, a national resource of information about community networks and community information systems. As an outgrowth of this project, we are now developing infrastructure to support Knowledge Work Sites for particular sub-communities within the community technology movement.

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Paul Resnick (presnick@umich.edu) is Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, where he coordinates the Community Information Corps. He received the master's and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. His research focuses on SocioTechnical Capital, productive social relations that are enabled by the ongoing use of information and communication technology. His current projects include analyzing and designing reputation systems that help maintain trust among strangers on-line, and using photo-directories and email lists to increase social ties in neighborhoods. Fall and winter-spring course syllabi are available online.

Full list of projects

The Community Connector website is a national resource of information about community networks and community information systems (Prof. Durrance). As an outgrowth of this project, we are now developing infrastructure to support Knowledge Work Sites for particular sub-communities within the community technology movement (Profs. Atkins and Resnick).

CHICO , an ongoing project that captures cultural heritage materials and make them accessible to broader audiences. Materials have ranged from a web-based history of underground railroad activity near Ann Arbor to a CD-ROM on the Yup'ik masks of the native people of southwestern Alaska and the Yukon (Profs. Frost and Holland).

Who That, tools and techniques for creating membership directories for neighborhoods, sports teams, and other groups, and research the effects these directories have on social capital in these groups (Prof. Resnick).

In the CIO Project, SI students helped teenagers learn technology skills and use them in organizing community information, at the Flint Public Library and a community technology center in a public housing development (Profs. Durrance and Resnick).

On South Africa trips, students and faculty spent six weeks at the University of Fort Hare working on projects ranging from the archives of the ANC to e-commerce capabilities for local micro-enterprises (Profs. Hedstrom, Wallace, and Cogburn).

ASPs and Open Source Software for non-profits -- for several years, students provided information systems consulting to small non-profit organizations and explored some of the larger issues of how best to provide such services. One outcome was a workshop and white paper on Application Service Providers and Open Source Software for the non-profit sector (Prof. Cohen).

BetterTogether grew out of the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement. Visitors can download that group's report, read and contribute stories about new ways that Americans are connecting (Prof. Resnick).

The AIHEC Virtual Library initiative is helping Native American Tribal Colleges to develop virtual digital libraries (Prof. Atkins).

The "How Libraries and Librarians Help" Project examined how public libraries are providing community information. A second part is developing tools that libraries can use to evaluate their activities (Prof. Durrance).

Through Fresh Online, students developed prototype software for on-line grocery ordering in poor neighborhoods (Profs. Whatley and Resnick).

Fellowship Awarded April 2000

Laurel Sandor, May 2001 graduate. While at SI, she has worked on two youth and technology programs, through the Flint Public Library and the Detroit Public Library. She co-authored a report, with Karen Scheuerer, on information flows in the Community Technology Center movement. She has accepted a position as a young adult librarian with the Queens Borough Public Library, and she looks forward to continuing that library system's strong community outreach efforts. In her spare time, Laurel would like to figure out a way to combine her interest in storytelling and a developing interest in gangs.

Fellowships Awarded April 2001

Daryl D. Fisher, graduated August 1999, specializing in Information Economics, Management, and Policy. Currently he is an Information Technology and Workforce Development Specialist for ICARD, the Institute for Community and Regional Development at Eastern Michigan University. He did research for an environmental scan on workforce and economic development, and served as an information specialist, providing technology instruction and serving as Webmaster. Since 1994, Daryl has not owned an automobile.

Stephen Herrick, May 2001 graduate. While at SI, he worked on the Community Connector web site and on the web infrastructure team for the Knowledge Worksites effort of the Alliance for Community Technology. He plans to work from Nicaragua as the editor of The CEPAD Report, a newsletter published by the Council of Evangelical Churches of Nicaragua. Steve is also a Green Party activist and was frequently found on the front-lines of protest activities, across campus and across the country.

Karen Scheuerer graduated in December 2000. At SI, she was a research assistant to Professor Joan Durrance on the Help-Seeking in an Electronic World study, a research project which examined the roles of libraries in providing access to community information. She co-authored a report with Laurel Sandor on information flows in the Community Technology Center movement. Since December, she has been assisting Professor Durrance on the How Libraries and Librarians Help Study. She has recently accepted a position as Director of Neighborhood Information Services with the Citizens Committee for New York City. Before graduate school, she spent time in rural Poland teaching English. Karen's interest in Central/Eastern Europe developed while pursuing a BA in History at Wellesley College. Her fascination with foreign cultures led to brief stints as a travel agent and a map contributor to Let's Go travel guides. She also served as an Americorps team leader for an anti-hunger project in Los Angeles. In her spare time Karen enjoys long-distance running when she is not surfing the web for the best travel deal to her next exotic destination.

Jenny Lind Smith is completing her first year of studies. Before enrolling at SI, she worked at the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers and the Council for a Livable World Education Fund. Her dream job after graduation is to work at the Benton Foundation as part of their Communications Policy and Practice program, where she'll be working as an intern this summer. Jenny has a fifteen year plan to learn dance styles from every continent.

Todd White, May 2001 graduate. Before enrolling at SI, he was the Internet Training Coordinator for the Northland Library Cooperative in Alpena, MI. He also developed the web site for the Ubuntu Network, the Scholars Network for Peace Building in Africa. During the summer of 2000, he was part of an SI delegation to the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, where he participated in a project to promote local e-commerce. Todd plans to join the Peace Corps on an Information Technology assignment. In the longer term, Todd hopes to promote information technology and ultimate frisbee in Africa.

List of Summer 2001 internships

-- Benton Foundation-- Communications Policy Internship to contribute to on-line information resources of the Digital Divide Network.

-- Non-Profit Enterprise at Work -- Technical Assistance Provider, consulting to local non-profits about their websites and other information systems.

-- Cyberstate.org -- Program Assistant to facilitate the Legislative IT Forum and the Michigan Information Technology Advisory Group

-- Imagining America -- Information Team, to restructure their web site and movement to connect universities and the communities they serve through the arts and the humanities.

-- Washtenaw County Library -- Internet Program Assistant to improve the overall design and functionality of their public web site.

-- Mott Foundation -- Program Assistant to assess the feasibility and design of an on-line rating service for non-profit consultants and training resources in SE Michigan.

-- Kelsey Museum of Archeology Library -- Librarian to make card catalog available on-line and assess usage by K-12 audience and general public.

-- Council of Michigan Foundations -- Circuit Rider to assist community foundations in information systems assessment and planning.

-- Libraries For the Future -- Youth Program Developer Help to design, program, and implement community e-journalism projects with Detroit youth.