COPC - Community Informatics Group Notes

<Virginia Eubanks> What I'm thinking about for the Tech 4 Communities Conference.
"Action and Research. Really."
If you think a tap dance on methods at this point would work with your stuff (I think it does in the context of the conference, because it doesn't seem overrepresented in the schedule so far), I'd like to start thinking through the actual day-to-day challenges facing action researchers and writing about it in a systematic way. This would start to fill the gap between ethnography methods (which teach you how to be a good observer, but give little advice on participating) and PAR methods (which show you how to be a good facilitator and participant, but aren't so great on systematic observation - which is one way to legitimize and therefore be able to continue your work in the academy). It would also give me a start at a finished project for the independent study (and for my the methods section of my proposal).
Things I could cover: the spork paradigm, fun as a social justice issue, grant writing for fried chicken, meeting people where they're at, uptake of collaborative research projects, building self-redundancy, allowing yourself to be captured by your fieldsite, too much richness too fast, collaborative (self-)observation, PAR in North America, non-technophobic PAR. </Virginia Eubanks> <!--11:59 AM-->

<Virginia Eubanks> "It is not enough simply to democratize access to existing information [or technology]. Rather, fundamental questions must be raised about what knowledge is produced, by whom, for whose interest and toward what end. Such arguments begin to demand the creation of an alternative organization of science--one that is not only for the people but is created with them and by them as well."

--John Gaventa, Highlander Center </Virginia Eubanks> <!--11:42 AM-->

<Virginia Eubanks> Hi Nancy:
So, this is what's called a blogger. This is a space to use for group work wothout the muss and fuss of email to everyone and multiple files. Also, it might be useful for working when one or the other of us is out of town. Thought we might give it a spin for the "More than a room of one's own" paper.

Here's how it works. To update the text you see here, go to http://www.blogger.com. Sign in with our information:
user name: copc
password: copcians

In the right-hand column of the screen, under the title "Your blogs," you'll see the "COPC" blog. Click on the title, and a screen will appear. There are two sections of this screen. The top screen reads "Post to COPC - Community Informatics Group Notes." This is where you can type in new messages to post. The bottom section has old messages in it. You can click on the link "edit" under each message to modify that file live through your web browser.

When you are done, click the button at top right that says "post and publish," and your chages will be uploaded to the web site.

Try it out!

-Virginia </Virginia Eubanks> <!--8:48 PM-->

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