This dissertation addresses the question, whatwill be the fate ofcommunityand social relations as a result of the growth of new home-based information and communication technologies? How have social networks, social capital and community involvement been affected by the rise of personal computers, the Internet and computer mediated communication (CMC)? Will the Internet reconnect the disaffiliated, or will CMC only contribute to a further disengagement of American community life? Survey and ethnographic data from along-term study of "Netville," a wired suburb near Toronto, are used to investigate the effects of advanced communication technology on social relationships. Netville was one of the first residential developments in the world to be built from the ground up with a broadband high-speed local computer network. Netville provided a unique opportunity to observe the effects of advanced information and communication technology on people's daily interactions with family, friends and neighbours. The "wired" residents of Netville are compared with a similar group of non-wired residents who lived in the same neighbourhood, but who were never connected to the local computer network. Greater involvement with friends, family and neighbours is linked to use of CMC. Internet use is associated with high levels of in-person and telephone contact, the exchange of support, the growth of personal network and increased community involvement.

Introduction A combination of Internet use and home computing have increasingly moved activities once almost exclusively ascribed to the public realm into the private home. It is increasingly possible to work, shop and participate in leisure activities all from within the refuge of the private residence. Computer-mediated communication allows for greater connectivity to resources and information, but simultaneously it may be disconnecting us from members of our social networks and reducing public participation. As globally connected as the Internet is the technology necessary for participation is inherently local, primarily available at work, school and increasing from home. Will the location of new information and communication technology in the home isolate us from our local surroundings? How will computer-mediated communication effect social relations at the local level? Netville The ideal setting to research the effects of home-centered communication and i

Abstract. Community poster boards serve an important community building function. Posted fliers advertise services, events and people’s interests, and invite community members to communicate, participate, interact and transact. In this paper we describe the design, development and deployment of several large screen, digital community poster boards, the Plasma Posters, within our organization. We present our motivation, two fieldwork studies of online and offline information sharing, and design guidelines derived from our observations. After introducing the Plasma Posters and the underlying information storage and distribution infrastructure, we illustrate their use and value within our organization, summarizing findings from qualitative and quantitative evaluations. We conclude by elaborating socio-technical challenges we have faced in our design and deployment process.

The authors examine the experience of the residents of Netville, a suburban neighborhood with access to some of the most advanced new communication technologies available, and how this technology affected the amount of contact and support exchanged with members of their distant social networks. Focusing exclusively on friends and relativesexternal to the neighborhood of Netville, we analyze "community" as relations that provide a sense of belonging rather than as a group of people living near each other. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is treated as one of several means of communication used in the maintenance of social networks. Contrary to expectations that the Internet encourages a "global village ," t hose ti es t hat previously were " jus t ou t of reac h" geographically, experience the greatest increase in contact and support as a result of access to CMC. Keywords: glob al v ill age, Netvil le, social networks, technology and society. American Behavioral Scientis...

Abstract. Using ethnographic methods, 28 young professionals across the global cities of London, Los Angeles, and Tokyo were studied to understand in some detail what items they carried with them (their mobile kits) and how they used these items to access people, places, and services (through various urban interfaces). The findings are analyzed in terms of these cities as existing sites of ubiquitous information and communication technology (ICT) use. More specifically, findings are considered with respect to the prospects in these cities for ubicomp as a paradigm of trusted, environmentally embedded computing, as opposed to a wearable computing paradigm of individual self-sufficiency. Overall, at least for the young professional class studied, practices of urban interfacing were remarkably similar across all three cities studied, suggesting that ubicomp systems might be developed to address the range of urban concerns and to unburden and empower urbanites. 1

1997) are stimulating a re-examination of traditional principles of designing teaching and learning experiences. Insights from this research are not only helping to deepen our understanding of traditional core learning principles, but they are also providing practical guidance on how to design learning experiences for our new high technology environments. The following ten learning principles illustrate how recent research integrated with traditional principles of pedagogy and instructional design can enrich our understanding of thinking and learning processes. The principles outlined here can serve as a guide to the design of learning experiences in both online environments and traditional campus classrooms. Core Learning Principle #1: Every Structured Learning Experience Has Four Elements with the

EU sponsored “Piazza ” team rethinks the nature of conviviality, community, and informal learning in the digital age, and identifies some of the human, environmental, and technological qualities that make for rich event-spaces in inter-generational learning. The paper stresses the importance of third-places—great good places between home and work—and focuses on their transformative power, or capacity to draw in people from different ages and walks of life to jointly turn the habitual into the extraordinary. Drawing from case studies (interviews) and interaction design methods (co-creation of concept cards), the authors provide a conceptual framework to help drive the design of experientially rich places for intergenerational learning. Keywords. Inter-generational learning; third-places; living stages; play; imagination; dreams; identities. 1.

Purpose: This paper is a high-level investigation of the physical-conceptual continuum occupied by both digital and physical libraries. Methodology/Approach: A framework is provided for thinking about the notions of place and library. The issue of materials and the ideas they represent is considered. Places for people are considered, including issues of people’s sense of place in physical and digital spaces. The issue of physical and digital spaces as places for work, collaboration, and community-building is considered. Findings: As more digital libraries are built, and as more physical libraries offer electronic access to parts of their collection, two trends are likely to result: (1) The role of the library as a storage space for materials will become decreasingly important, and (2) The role of the library as a space for users, for individual and collaborative work, and as a space for social activity, will become increasingly important. Research limitations/implications: Digital libraries are unable to fulfill some of the functions of the physical library as physical spaces, but are able to offer functions beyond what the physical library can offer as cognitive spaces. Practical implications: Areas of likely future development for digital libraries are suggested, as vehicles for enhancing cognitive space by augmenting representations of ideas in materials. Originality/value of paper: This paper argues that in many ways digital libraries really are places in the conceptual sense, and will continue to broaden and enrich the roles that libraries play in people’s lives and in the larger social milieu.

Information grounds are places where people exchange information. Here we examine use of a mobile device-based social networking service as an information ground. The service allows users to form groups and send text and photo messages to those groups. We present usage and questionnaire data from 19 people who shared a primary group in this system and who used the system for 16 months on average. Results highlight the types and usefulness of information shared, the role of information shared in everyday life, the way the system fits into participants ’ communication and social “ecosystem”, and the ways in which the system functions as an information ground. Usage analyses describe message sending frequency and system participation levels in relation to other factors, such as length of time in the system. Findings are discussed in the context of the seven propositions of the information grounds framework.

This research began with the premise that video game play, especially as it relates to participation in persistent virtual worlds, provides fictional spaces where players engage in cognitive and communicative practices that can be personally transformative in pro-social ways. Players ’ experiences with these worlds are as much defined by the technical design and construction of these spaces as they are influenced by the socio-cultural arrangements that develop. In support of this belief, we collected data on children’s experiences with a range of technologies germane to the Digital Age, including their participation in the Quest Atlantis environment, an immersive space for learning that is intended to engage children ages 9–12 in a form of dramatic play comprising both online and real-world learning activities. By enlisting this innovation to non-intrusively collect data about children’s participation as well as their engagement with media more generally, the research team was able to move beyond an ethnographic study of what already exists in the world and develop a grounded appreciation for what an innovative technology-rich context might make possible in the future.