About This Site

Contact Information
Mission, Goals, and Objectives
Site Maintainers
Past Version Information
Other CNI and School of Information Projects
See What Others Think of Us!

Contact Information

Phone: (734) 763-1569
Fax: (734) 764-2475
Email: si.cn@umich.edu

Mailing address:: Community Networking Initiative
c/o Professor Joan C. Durrance
School of Information
University of Michigan
3084 West Hall Connector
550 East University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092

Community Networking Initiative
Mission, Goals, and Objectives

Mission:

The mission of the UM-SI Community Connector is to support community-serving organizations, funders, academics, and students who are using technology to enhance geographic communities.

Goals:

The Community Networking Initiative seeks to:

provide an electronic gateway to news, activities, and sustainability resources;
showcase exemplary ways community information systems serve and engage their communities;
inform and educate people about digital community information resources and systems;
encourage innovation in community information resources and systems;
foster research, program development, and program evaluation;
involve, educate, and support graduate students and the School of Information community

Objectives:

1) To maintain and further develop the Community Connector web site

2) To describe models of community information systems

3) To provide current information on community information news, activities, publications, and opportunities

4) To locate and provide pointers to community networks

5) To extend our outreach and marketing to a wide range of audiences, including community-serving organizations, funders, and the academic community

6) To evaluate the effectiveness of the Community Connector

7) To advance research on community networking and digital community information resources, and to support the self-evaluation efforts of community information systems

Adopted February 10, 1997.
Revised February 4, 1998.
Revised January 9, 1999.
Revised September 28, 1999.

Want to learn more about the field? See our Frequently Asked Questions

|| Return to Top ||

Past Version Information

The first CN page was established in 1994 by Professor Joan C. Durrance. It was used as a vehicle by Community Networking classes in 1994 and 1995, both to introduce students to the subject and to showcase students' efforts at providing value-added community information.

While the page underwent significant changes in its first two years, its first major revision began in Fall 1995, with the debut of the Community Networking Resource Site. The CNRS was created by SI master's students Alison Atkins, Emily Lenhart and Jennifer Stone, and SI doctoral student Karen Schneider. The CNRS introduced the puzzle emblem.

That design functioned well for two years. However, it soon became apparent that the site was growing by leaps and bounds and would require a new structure to better accomodate growth. Brainstorming for a new site structure began in the summer of 1997. With the largest ever CN team coming on board in the fall of 1997, the new site quickly became a reality. The Community Connector made its debut in October of 1997.

In the summer of 1998, the site started displaying some of its content via databases. A site redesign in December 1998 streamlined the site's organization and added a site index, FAQs, and more content served from databases, now using Cold Fusion.

The site is maintained by the current team as a group effort. Some content is also provided by students from SI's Community Information Systems classes.

|| Return to Top ||

Other CNI and School of Information Projects

SI Class Projects

Professor Durrance has recently been co-teaching courses on Community Information Systems, which have a strong hands-on component. Here are a few of the classes' projects:

Three students (Marc Miller, Crystal Zeh, and Meg Heinhold) and one professor (Paul Resnick) started creating directories and e-mail distribution lists for their own blocks here in Ann Arbor. Their project, Who's That, is about reconnecting with neighbors for fun and to build a base of social capital for civic activity.
Kelly Garrett, Meg Heinhold, and Karen Scheuerer worked with a group of kids to create an online resource for the residents of the Cobble Creek apartments in nearby Ypsilanti.

Training at MMLC

The Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative, through its 1995 LSCA Internet Training Center Grant and collaborative partnerships with its own members, the University of Michigan School of Information, Apple Computer, the Kellogg Foundation, and the Community Stabilization and Revitalization (CSR) Project, is striving to equip, train, and energize its librarians to lead their communities into the high-tech information age. The MMLC training project will equip 18 librarians in Genesee, Shiawassee, northern Oakland, and Lapeer counties with basic competencies in accessing Internet reference services. In addition to training, each student is expected to be able to train the remainder of their library's staff in a second phase of training to begin in the winter.

Flint Community Networking Initiative Training Center

SI and several Flint-area institutions led an effort to create an Internet Training and Community Networking Center at the Flint Public Library. The Internet Training and Community Networking Center is the first of several "living laboratories" to be funded from a Kellogg Foundation grant to SI and from other sources. Working with SI are the Flint Public Library, the Mideastern Michigan Library Cooperative and the U-M Flint Community Stabilization and Revitalization Project. For more information about this project, please see the results or media coverage of the Flint Community Networking Intiative Training Center, or the paper presented at the Ties That Bind Conference.

Other SI Projects and Initiatives