Re: Welcome to community
Larry Tague (ltague@physio1.utmem.edu)
Mon, 17 Mar 1997 00:51:11 -0600 (CST)
Balancing Research and Practice - Networking Infrastructure for Education
Community Networking Participants,
As moderator of this discussion I would like to welcome you to what I am
confident will be a lively online discussion of the many aspects of
community networking which will culminate with the Pittsburgh "onsite"
Conference, April 3-5th. As a brief introduction, I am the Co-PI and
Co-director of the NSF project known as the "Memphis Educational Computer
Connectivity Alliance" (MECCA). The PI, Dr. Jack Buchanan, and myself
have been about the business of community networking since 1993. We have
co-written three NSF proposals (funded). These proposals started with a
CISE consortium/connections program which helped establish the membership
of this alliance. We were initially concerned with developing a municipal
academic network by assisting institutions of higher education and one
experimental K-12 institution with the process of obtaining functional
Internet connections via what was known as the NSFnet Backbone. By
invitation and with two subsequent proposals, we have added 'Networking
Infrastructure for Education" to the primary goals of this alliance.
Rather than continue at this time with a description of what we have been
doing relative to community networking, I will instead provide you with
the URL to MECCA (http://www.mecca.org) which describes many of our
educational programs and connections. For those taking part in this
discussion who have similar web sites describing their programs, please
let me encourage you to provide us with the URL to your site for perusal
by the participants. This will save all of us the need to provide lengthy
descriptions of our community networking activities during the course of
this discussion. If you do not currently have web based information
(accessible) describing your project(s), please send me a summary of your
activities which I can have linked to our conference web site. Provide
the acronym of your project and also a couple of descriptive sentences.
If you need to refer to your community networking program(s), do so when
possible by URL. In the course of this discussion, there may be the need
or desire to include site (URLs) information not directly related to our
NSF projects. Feel free to make reference to this information as long as
it relates to examples for relavent information concerning community
networking.
We have a lot of "cyberspace ground" to cover during the next two+ weeks.
Hence I feel that we best approach our discussion topic and subtopics in a
sequential manner. I am personally satisfied at present with the
subtopics that have been provided by the conference organizers. If you
would like to amend or add to these subtopics at the beginning or during
the course of this discussion series please do so by sending your
suggestions. However, I do not want us to get bogged down in protocol, so
please limit your suggestions to what you feel will enhance understanding
and contribute to the structure of this process.
Since we have only two+ weeks to cover the initial six subtopics, I would
like to suggest that we consider covering the first three areas during the
first week, and the remaining three during the second week of discussion.
With any time left, we can concentrate on summarizing and solidifying
areas for enhanced and/or continued discussion in Pittsburgh. I would like
to ask our co-moderator/facilitator, Ms. Rashidah Hakeem (MECCA
coordinator/educator) to help maintain a summary of each subtopic grouping
(see below) under discussion for further consideration with the time we
have left at the end of this process.
To better group related subtopics I have taken the liberty of rearranging
these items. If there are no major objections, I would like for us to use
the following order for subtopic discussion..
WEEK ONE:
The value of community Involvement
Groups to involve in community outreach
Gaining political support
WEEK TWO:
Relationship to educational reform
Linking community activities to educational goals
Technical infrastructure requirements
It has generally been our experience that "human networking" is often the
most difficult task we face in the course of community networking. Week
one will concentrate on this difficult area . Week two will concentrate
on the inclusion of educational content and process into community
networking models. And BTW I am using "models" on purpose because at the
end of this discussion I would like for us to have a functional model(s)
for the process of community networking combined with educational
facilitation. Just in case you have not already thought about it, this
whole conference-online discussion is a good example of a community
networking model.
Remember we are trying to study what works as well as what does not work
and/or what we need to consider relative to the future of community
networking as we visualize it today. We all have different experiences
relative to community networking, and all of these experiences are
important and worthy of consideration.
I would like to thank all of the online conference organizers who have
contributed many hours , and "after hours" to putting this program
together. I was on the network the other evening (after midnight CST),
sent a query to Bob Carlitz, and lo and behold I received an immediate
response. As I am about to send this message Laurie is still online...
note the time! This is most often the kind of individual dedication
necessary to make community networking.. work!
LET THE COMMUNITY BEGIN!!
Larry
Larry Tague
Co-Director of MECCA*
Research Associate Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics
Phone Bus.: 901-448-7152 U.T. Memphis
Phone FAX: 901-448-7126 894 Union Ave.
e-mail:ltague@physio1.utmem.edu or Memphis, TN 38163
ltague@mecca.mecca.org
*MECCA (Memphis Educational Computer Connectivity Alliance)
URL: http://www.mecca.org/