[Advisors] request: What is a community network

Tue Jun 20 08:21:01 PDT 2017

Marita .. I would suggest ³digital technology organizations² in place of
³not-for-profit organizations² .. Mainly because some communities decide to
operate their networks as profit centres for the benefit of the community.
Thunder Bay¹s TBayTel contributes over $10M annually to the city (used to
anyway). After I left KNET, the parent organization decided to make it a
corporation to create revenue for other community projects. Everything
evolves .. Brian

From:  Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org>
Date:  Tue, 20 Jun 2017 11:00:31 -0400
To:  Marita Moll <mmoll at ca.inter.net>
Cc:  Garth Graham <garth.graham at telus.net>, TC Advisors <advisors at tc.ca>
Subject:  Re: [Advisors] request: What is a community network

Requiring that the org be nonprofit and that stakeholders be local to a
defined community is reasonable.

But an insistence that there can't be a single paid staffer running things,
even part-time, is insane and likely to cause plenty of false negatives.

On 15 June 2017 at 15:38, Marita Moll <mmoll at ca.inter.net> wrote:
>     
>  
> 
> Thanks a lot Garth. They are currently saying CN's (for which they have no
> definition) that would qualify for their special policy have to be 100%
> volunteer driven. They know that's unrealistic. So, besides cobbling this and
> anything else that comes my way into a "definition",  I will have to find a
> way to address that as well.
>  
> 
> Marita
>  
> 
>  
>  
> On 6/15/2017 12:15 PM, Garth Graham wrote:
>  
>  
>>  
>> Mining our own TC web site, here¹s a range of thoughts on definition.  You
>> now have  far better idea of how these might be shoe-horned to fit ARIN¹s
>> needs than I wouldŠ..
>> 
>> http://tc.ca/bylaw1v.2016.rtf
>> [TC] Membership is open to
>> (a) Canadian electronic community networking organizations, including public
>> access sites, learning networks, community networks, libraries and other
>> organizations that support the aims and objectives of Telecommunities Canada
>> and that it:
>> € operate on a not-for-profit basis;
>> € have  their  legal membership open to every citizen of their community;
>> € provide equitable access to all citizens in their community;
>> € encourage exchange, publication and access to the broadest possible range
>> of information of interest to the community;
>> € endeavour to create connections with other computer based networks  and to
>> allow the free and interactive flow of information between different
>> communities;
>> € and whose membership application has been approved from time to time by the
>> board of directors
>> 
>> 
>> http://tc.ca/newapproach.txt
>> "Telecommunities Canada (TC) has never taken the conventional view of social
>> change as technology driven.  We have always assumed there is an emerging set
>> of social and cultural changes of which the Internet is a symptom and then
>> asked, "What new social forms are the most viable in that new environment?"
>> TC's answer is that the form or process called "community," re-defined by
>> being online, is the one most viable.  In that view then, community
>> networking is not defined institutionally.
>> Community networking is defined as the shared experiences of communities of
>> practice related to understanding how community is achieved in the online
>> context as a public good and an essential socio-economic goal.²
>> 
>> 
>> Etienne Wenger. Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity.
>> Cambridge University Press, 1998. 45.
>> ³Being alive as human beings means that we are constantly engaged in the
>> pursuit of enterprises of all kinds, from ensuring our physical survival to
>> seeking the most lofty pleasures. As we define these enterprises and engage
>> in their pursuit together, we interact with each other and with the world and
>> we tune our relationships with each other and the world accordingly. In other
>> words, we learn.²
>> 
>> ³Over time, this collective learning results in practices that reflect both
>> the pursuit of our enterprises and the attendant social relationships. These
>> practices are thus the property of a kind of community created over time by
>> the sustained pursuit of a shared enterprise. It makes sense, therefore, to
>> call these kinds of communities communities of practice.²
>> 
>> 
>> WHAT COMMUNITY NETWORKS ARE ALL ABOUT  http://tc.ca/allabout.html
>> There are four major concerns that should preoccupy a community network
>> association and thus define the local electronic public space it sustains:
>> 
>> COMMUNITY - because the intersection of virtual community and geographical
>> community requires a new approach to community development
>> 
>> COMMONS - because a community network's primary responsibility is the defense
>> of universal access to electronic public space as a commons
>> 
>> CONTENT- because the content of the electronic public space that the
>> community network provides through computer mediated communications is not a
>> commodity. It's behaviour. It's a dynamic process of informing through
>> dialogue, and it's the chief means of learning netiquette (the rules of
>> social interaction and citizenship in cyberspace)
>> 
>> CARRIER - because there are many possible routes in and out of a community
>> network, but the community networking association is responsible for
>> moderating the experience of being there.
>> 
>> 
>> Towards a National Strategy for Digital Inclusion
>> http://tc.ca/digital_inc4.pdf
>> "Internationally, ³telecentres² is the word used for what Canadians have
>> called ³community access.² A telecentre is a public place where people can
>> access computers, the internet, and other digital technologies that enable
>> people to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others
>> while they develop essential 21st-century digital skills. A telecentre
>> provides public access to a variety of online tools and resources in the
>> context of demographically and socio-economically dynamic communities, ever
>> changing technologies, and locally driven social and digital initiatives."
>> 
>> 
>> On Jun 15, 2017, at 6:31 AM, Marita Moll <mmoll at ca.inter.net>
>> <mailto:mmoll at ca.inter.net>  wrote:
>>  
>>>  
>>> Hello all. I have agreed to give an opinion to a ARIN (American Registry for
>>> Internet Numbers), from our side of the 49th, on the question: What is a
>>> community network?
>>> 
>>> The purpose is to retain this language on the ARIN policy manual. Currently
>>> it is recognized that Community Networks are not the same as private ISPs
>>> and are given special consideration with respect to the cost of purchasing
>>> blocks of Internet addresses (specifically IPV6).  It would be good not to
>>> lose that, even if it is hardly used. ARIN (despite the name) serves all of
>>> North America so it does affect us.
>>> 
>>> Marita
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Advisors mailing list
>>> Advisors at tc.cahttp://victoria.tc.ca/mailman/listinfo/advisors
>>>  
>>  
>>  
>  
>  
> 
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-- 
Evan Leibovitch
Toronto, Canada
> Em: evan at telly dot org
> Sk: evanleibovitch
> Tw: el56
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