Is the Landscape Changing?

CNs Compete for Local Community Information Niche with For-Profits, Government

For an assignment in their Community Information Systems class here at U of M's School of Information, the students below investigated local information sources in five cities.

In comparing each city's sources of local information from commercial, nonprofit and government web sites, the class made some interesting observations about the state of community networking and local information provision today. It may be that the need for up-to-date local content is being filled by other sources, moreso than other roles played by community networks (e.g., access or training). Here's what else the class noticed:

• Search engines turn up commercial sites before nonprofits. Nonprofit CNs, as a result, are not easily identified.
• Commercial sites are easier to search, better looking, better organized, and have more up-to-date content, all clearly the result of more resources.
• Forums on commercial sites are more active.
• Many for-profit sites seem to benefit from the expertise of journalists and graphic artists.
• Nonprofits' sites, including community networks, tend to have more of a local flavor, better neighborhood coverage, and a more personal feel.
• Community networks' sites often benefit from the expertise of librarians.
• Local control is a clear advantage of a community-run site.

Read about the local information "landscape" in these cities:

Chicago by Angela Napili and Marc Miller

Detroit by Linda Williams and Greg Stein

Fort Lauderdale by Meredith Bauch and Niki Fallen

Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) by Yi-Chuan Jane Hsieh & Punky Kwatsha

Washington, D.C. by Meg Heinhold and Kelly Garrett