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Chebucto Community Net
by Meg Heinhold
University of Michigan Community Information Corps
The Chebucto Community Net (CCN) is located in Nova Scotia , Canada. It mainly serves metropolitan Halifax, but has resources that serve the greater Nova Scotia region as well. The CCN has an amazing breadth of sites and services. Registered users (of which there are 6,6001 active) can take advantage of dial-in access, e-mail, newsgroups, mailing lists, web browsing, and filespace. Users can voluntarily become members and pay dues to support the Chebucto Community Net. Public access sites include local libraries, schools, and public access terminals in other locations. Individuals and public or community groups can become CCN Information Providers by posting websites that contain useful or valuable public information.
The CCN has one main focus: the community. It is a tool for people finding each other through points of common interest, and it is a tool for people communicating with each other through e-mail, mailing lists, and newsgroups. It is a resource that contains sites and links to sites that have strong cultural, informational, and educational content. It hosts on-line community events - currently, the CCN is holding an on-line treasure hunt as part of National Science and Technology week, in partnership with the local Halifax newspaper and the Science and Technology Awareness Network.
What You’ll Find on the Chebucto Community Net
Many sites within the CCN are specific to the community, such as local agencies and organizations. There are also community news and events listings, as well as local media information. But many more of the sites have a slightly different intent. They aren’t only an on-line resource for off-line groups and events. They contain a vast amount of information that is entirely accessible on-line.
The Chebucto Community Net connects the community beyond its own geographical boundaries. The CCN does not only contain a listing of websites on its own network - though there are many of those. Over 185 Information Provider organizations have sites on the CCN. These are incorporated with the many other links that are listed. Sites that are actually on the CCN have a "CCN" icon indicator. Generally, a hierarchy exists in most of the subject headings: local, regional, national, and international links.
Some of its special features include a French version of the Chebucto Community Net: the Reseau communautaire Chebucto. In most cases only the top level navigation is in French, but on all listings of links French language websites are marked with a star. The CCN has also developed its own CSuite software and provides downloads of many free Internet software.
One of the CCN’s great strengths is its training program. Both users and information providers can attend training sessions. About 10 people attend user training sessions each week, and the CCN has trained over 400 people in advanced WWW publishing to be Information Providers.
Something that could be seen as either a strength or a weakness is the low-graphic content on the site. It is CCN policy that all pages be available in text-only format, for the express intention of retaining access for low-income users who may only have text browsers and for blind users who need text sites. From roaming the site, it seems that most pages have chosen to exclude a lot of graphics, rather than writing two versions of each page.
The People of the CCN
The CCN also has widespread exposure, with almost 4 million hits per month. 60% of these accesses are from outside Nova Scotia. This could develop into a weakness if the CCN were to cater to these outside browsers, but currently their websites with a lot of content - not just links to other resources - are heavily Halifax- and Nova Scotia-centered. 96% of the active registered users are from Nova Scotia. The CCN has a strong community base for providing community information, but many people outside of the community are also finding the network useful.
Many of the pages give a sense of the people behind the network. This could perhaps be strengthened with pictures and more mention of the people involved in different organizations and activities. Another way to do this would be to hold off-line events for the on-line community, not just use the network for advertising public events.
There are opportunities for people to get involved by volunteering on the CCN. The CCN also invites success stories from users - stories about how the CCN has been valuable to them in what they do. The CCN Beacon, their on-line newsletter, has a friendly and personal flavor that shows this community network, at least, is not just a bunch of machines.
Information Providers and Partners
Each Information Provider’s (IP) site is entirely maintained by the IP Editor, who has been trained by the CCN, working with a CCN Editor. The CCN pages are maintained by the CCN Editors, who are trained volunteers. An on-line tutorial and editorial apprenticeship are part of the training process. The CCN also has a substantial administrative body, the Chebucto Community Net Society, with a Board of Directors and numerous committees. It appears that all of these people have other full-time jobs and are not paid by the CCN. This is not yet verified, however.
The site is well maintained and relatively current. Some text documents on the Net still refer to the "Chebucto Free Net" (its original name), but for the most part everything is up to date. There are minor spelling errors, and the keyjumps that follow links may be puzzling to those who don’t use text browsers, but overall the site is easy to navigate. Links tend to actually go where they’re supposed to.
The Chebucto Community Net is run by the not-for-profit Chebucto Community Net Society. The CCN receives funding from government sources and membership dues. They also solicit funding from other companies. Assuming the Fundraising Committee’s "Action Plan" is up to date, the CCN recently received a $10,000 donation from the Halifax Cable and Access Cable, Dartmouth, and has an agreement to receive unspecified help from Sun Microsystems Ltd. In addition, the CCN received substantial financial support from Industry Canada in developing CSuite software package.
In an important way, perhaps the most important way, the CCN is partnered with the 185+ Information Providers who do the work of creating and maintaining their own sites. The current on-line treasure hunt does have a partner, the local Daily News. The CCN also thanks the Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science department at Dalhousie University on several pages for "system support and software development."
One area that could be strengthened in the future is partnership with local government. The site does contain links to local government pages, but perhaps a more active partnership between local government and the CCN could further encourage people to take responsibility for and ownership of their community
1 The 1996 Annual Report for the Membership Committee - the most recent Annual Report available online - notes that there were 3,500 active users at the end of 1996, and that this number included only members of the Chebucto Community Net Society who had paid their dues; it did not include all registered users. The 6,600 number could refer to only members or to all registered active users.
This profile was orignially developed by Meg Heinhold for the Community Information Systems and Community Networking class (SI 695-2) at the University of Michigan School of Information, October 1998.