Letters Making Use of the CTCNet Evaluation Report Hi CTCNet, We received our order of 15 copies of "Community Technology Centers: Impacts on Individuals and Their Communities." The copies are very popular and I am going to need to order some more, if possible. The first batch I am using (starting tomorrow) with settlement house program staff who will be learning ways to access the impact of their technology programs. The new batch I would like to order (10) I want to give to the executive directors of the settlement houses which run the family room technology programs. The purpose is to educate them on a broad scale as to what community technology centers are doing, their potential, their impact to date and the importance of supporting them. I would therefore like to order an additional 10 copies of the study. I am having a meeting of those executive directors next week and figured the meeting would be a good opportunity to get it into their hands. Thanks for everything. I hope the New England fall season is treating you well. Michael D. Roberts Technology Training Coordinator United Neighborhood Houses of New York Sharing Networks for the People In the Spring of 1996, Peter Miller called the Loka Institue to ask about our Community Research Network. He suggested Loka and CTCNet learn from each other and share our experiences building networks. This seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn't realize just how good an idea until I attended the 1997 CTCNet All Affiliates Conference in Pittsburgh. A cause one believes in is certainly a strong motive for building a network. However, networking for the people involved in addition to the cause, makes the entire process more meaningful as well as more enjoyable. Similar to CTCNet, the Community Research Network (CRN) is based on the understanding that human interaction is a crucial element of sustainable community. The community center&s#8212;revolving around technology, research or books—all have people at the core who bring warmth to the center and life to the information. In subsequent conversations to our initial conversation last spring, CTCNet and the CRN have explored ways that our networks might more actively collaborate. The CRN's premise is that communities need information and support to solve social and environmental problems. Complementary to CTCNet's mission to provide access to technology for use by communities, the CRN is providing access to good science for communities. In the United States the public does not have access to research to answer fundamental public questions regarding community health, economic viability, environmental quality, and social well-being. Access to information that may be useful in solving community problems is largely produced, stored and organized in ways that favor exclusionary corporate, military and academic interests. As a result, the nation's research agenda is controlled by these interests--not by the public. Consequently the public--and even some governmental organizations--have little or no direct access to researchers or problem-solving strategies. Even though the public pays for a large part of the science, the public have little say about what is studied and bear the brunt of corporatized science without receiving much benefit. Many of the problems faced by municipalities, non-profit organizations and communities, need solutions which science can provide. Government agencies need support to develop information, knowledge and wisdom to address social, environmental, economic and political problems. The public needs more access to information, and research capacity that responds to their needs and enables them to participate in decisions affecting their lives. The mission of the CRN is to create a system of public interest science that enables the public to establish the agenda, control the results, receive the benefits of research and find solutions to social and environmental problems through science. The CRN is modeled after a 25-year-old Dutch network of 50 university-based "Science Shops" which are dedicated to serving the public interest by answering the questions of community organizations, public interest groups, workers and local governments. CRN affiliates in the U.S. have established models for researchers to share their expertise and collaborate with community members to identify community needs, design and conduct research, and use information to strengthen the community. A public interest scientist can help communities overcome major obstacles: define the problem they face, define the information needed to address this problem, achieve a working knowledge of a complex issue, and gather and analyze information. In cases where existing knowledge is limited, the researcher and community can work together to design and implement a research project that will gather data relevant to the problem. Finally, collaborative efforts are an efficient way to plan an appropriate course of action that will address the problem once their results are attained. Members of the CRN have identified ways in which the CRN will: Strengthen the efficacy of over 40 nonprofit and publicly-funded community research centers and programs in the U.S.; Increase the number of community research centers in the U.S. and the commitment of publicly-funded and nonprofit science institutions (universities, national labs, grassroots organizations) to participate in public interest science; Identify grassroots community organizations in need of information and research to address problems in their communities, and link them with researchers and centers who will respond to their needs; Facilitate translocal/transnational research collaboration. In working toward these goals, members of the network will make referrals and exchange information, as well as receive inspiration from colleagues doing similar work throughout the country. Components of this short term goal include: building existing community researchers' understanding of how they can work together through the CRN to offer significant research capacity to public interest causes; encouraging researchers to participate in the CRN and shape its goals, thus making the CRN their organization; strengthening the efficacy of individual centers and programs (e.g., by helping them learn from one and other); building their visibility, accessibility and legitimacy; developing a systematic network capacity for the CRN to document and evaluate network performance; and, over time, helping centers to find additional funding to support their work. One of our early activities of the CRN has been to establish a database. The CRN database will be a World Wide Web directory of researchers, both university and community-based, willing to participate in public interest and community-initiated research activities. The Loka Institute has contracted with the Unison Institute, a non-profit organization committed to providing information technology in the public interest, to design and develop the database. The database will identify researchers by the following categories: name, location, type of research and principal research methods. It will also provide data on each researcher's background, groups they have worked with, criteria for working with groups, and fees if any. It will include an "auto-E-mail responder" and printing capability for those who do not have web access but do have E-mail. The database will also offer organizations an opportunity to add their own information to the database. It is our understanding that the database will be useful for organizations and individuals in need of public interest researchers. For example, ACORN, the largest constituency based organization serving low-and-moderate income communities across the country finds it very difficult to find public interest researchers to help them gather data for campaigns. With a database of researchers at their fingertips, they can connect directly with hundreds of researchers across the country willing to help them on, for example, gathering and analyzing data on environmental justice cases, welfare reform, distribution of public services, etc. This database, however, will also be helpful for smaller community organizations and individuals providing they have access to the database. Ideally, however, they would not only have access to the database, but to their own local community research center. Center staff would bring community members in personal contact with local experts in the particular field of interest to pursue through research collaboration. Our targeted end-users of the database are the growing group of disenfranchised citizens: for example, workers whose jobs are changing without their involvement; people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (whose neighborhoods have a disproportionate number of hazardous waste treatment plants and disposal sites); and low income neighborhoods. CTCNet has demonstrated that when these citizens receive information technology training and access others take for granted, job possibilities and organizing opportunities become available. Access to the CRN database will help communities acquire the knowledge needed to take action on critical issues. Not only does this enable people to resolve some of their most pressing problems, but it reinvigorates their faith in their ability to make the system work for them. CTCNet and the CRN are networks of people working for people. I am happy to work with CTCNet for the purpose of building community. Madeleine Scammell The Loka Institute PO Box 355 Amherst, MA 01004 Email: Loka2@amherst.edu http://www.amherst.edu/~loka phone: 413/582-5860 fax: 413/582-5811 Community Technology Center Review, January 1998 Table of Contents