CTCNet & AFCN: The Shared Future of Community Technology Centers and Community Networking by Peter Miller Community networks and community technology centers are both part of the larger community technology movement. Where one flourishes, the other is likely to be close at hand. Last spring's Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) conference in Seattle on "Community Space and Cyberspace—What's the Connection?" gave evidence to that fact; Seattle is the home city of two community networks and a range of access centers from the Seattle Urban League to Project Compute at the Rainier Community Center to the Speakeasy Cafe. Whether intentional or not, where there are vital and active community networks, there are also key community centers. Even in the very small community of Taos, New Mexico (population 4,000+), where LaPlaza Telecommunications hosted the community networking conference in 1996, the LaPlaza Telecommunity Learning Center off the main highway across from the WalMart includes an active 13 station access and training facility along with its bank of modems and telecommunications equipment. In Taos Pueblo there are remarkable community labs in the school and at the Head Start center. Access at the library has grown, the health center has a five-terminal lab, the San Cristobal Resource Center thirteen miles north opened a new three-station lab this summer, and there are plans for more (http://www.laplaza.org/about_lap/network/public_access.html#tlc). Community networks and community technology centers have very different origins, but it is not accidental that their developments are now taking place in tandem. Those committed to community networking appreciate the value of center-based access as the key approach for providing technology to people who are generally without access, skills, and opportunities to use it. No matter how friendly the user interface, how many modems a community network has, or how useful its information, in order to reach those most in need, the training, support and physical access provided by community centers are crucial. Likewise, those involved with center-based technology access and programming are appreciating more and more the importance of online communications and resources. For these centers, telecommunications is becoming an application as basic as word processing, databases, spreadsheets, graphics, and desktop publishing. To take full advantage of these resources, centers need to provide participants as well as staff with individual email accounts, as much high speed connectivity and multimedia capacity as possible, links to appropriate web sites, and the ability to find these sites and develop and publish original content. These are developments being recognized by the Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet), a national support project and membership organization for 250 community-based organizations with technology access programs, where tens of thousands of people who would not otherwise have access to current technology find a convenient and welcoming place to discover, explore, and receive training and support. CTCNet affiliates include settlement houses, museums, libraries, public and subsidized housing developments, stand-alone centers, and after-school, literacy, arts, and social service programs; they support agencies for the homeless, the mentally and physically-disabled, ex-offenders, and children of alcohol and substance abusers—a range that vividly demonstrates the Network's potential for reaching those who would otherwise lack access to computers and the Internet. Community networks are joining CTCNet in growing numbers, too, from the Inner City Net in San Diego to the Net at Two Rivers in Sacramento to the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACENet) in Athens, OH to LibertyNet in Philadelphia. The Austin FreeNet is another excellent example of the synergy between community networking and center-based access—through its 1997 CTCNet/Apple partnership award, the FreeNet equipped the new East Austin Media Center with a computer lab. In addition, Plugged In's EPANet in East Palo Alto and the Hill House Community Access Network in Pittsburgh represent center-based access programs establishing community networks as part of their mission. The Community Action Information Resource Network is a project of Community Access in New York City, a multi-site, multi-service center and half-way house/residence for people with psychiatric disabilities. The MetroBoston CWEIS project is rooted in center-based adult education programs making up the Literacy Telecommunications Collaborative. A growing number of community cable public, educational, and governmental (PEG) access centers especially are incorporating wider computer and technology access with both center-based lab access and community networking dimensions. Witness GrandNet out of the Community Media Center in Grand Rapids, MI, and Brooklynx, out of Brooklyn Access Community TV. Hybridization is common. In northern Oregon, the Columbia Technology Center in St. Helens is also a nonprofit Internet Service Provider. It is no easier to classify the CyberLynx Community Technology Centers of Coos & Curry Counties, in Bandon on the southern coast of the state. Such is the case, too, with collaborative center-based programs supported by the RECA Foundation and Columbia Basin Public Information Network/TriCounty FreeNet in Kennewick, WA. Community technology centers provide a grounding for community networking, a social technology laboratory to test out the possibilities for reaching those most likely to be on the other side of the technology gap, a place where evaluative criteria can be developed and put to use in clear and meaningful ways. For community networkers, such centers widen the conception of community, provide a bridge to the inner-city, and create active political alliances. There are currently struggles going on in many states to include both community networks and a broad range of nonprofits with center-based access in the establishment of universal service programs, to go beyond the pipes and hardware for schools, libraries, and rural heath centers that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has established. The development of community networks and neighborhood centers is not only an economically practical strategy on the road towards universal access, it's an eminently sensible social and political approach, too, strengthening and building local institutions that are the foundation of democratic self-help and empowerment. Peter Miller is the Network Director for CTCNet and can be reached at peterm@ctcnet.org. Community Technology Center Review, January 1998 Table of Contents