The Changing Ideology of 'Community'

I sit somewhat perplexed as I write to my blog about the definition of community, what it has been, what it is and what it will be.  In discussions with class mates at OISE, I discovered that the term 'Community' is a place of murky waters when trying to decifer a definition, I found that 'Community' means different things to different people, depending on social context.  Just as in the readings, "The Internet & Social Life" by Bargh and McKenna ('04) discusses online community evolution in workplace, as a social support and looking at how virtual groups can actually be beneficial parts of society.  Many people see 'community' with negatives ideals, for example in the recent US elections, the Republican party's criticism of community organizing. Take a look at this YouTube video on community organizers.  Others view community with historical significance and deep roots.  This notion became a hot topic among several of us in class who struggled to reconcile the new with the old definitions.  One even suggested created a whole new name for online community that represented the times.  Eg. like the term "blog" for writing an open journal and sharing with it interactively with others online.  At first, I found it hard to agree...but the more we discussed, the more I realized that yes, perhaps an online community or virtual group should have its own special definition.  Might I propose "commonline" as a potential name.  A common place online.  Other suggestions are more than welcome.  Let's see what we can come up with and if it will catch on.

Another topic of interest for me was the discussion of "communities of practice" -- a term I'm pretty familiar with through my work (at Saint Elizabeth Health Care).  We've been using this term to bring together groups of professionals, staff with common skills to share in a particular knowledge area.  We've mostly been using Discussion Forums as the venue for this online and it has worked out quite well when facilitated.  Another way of pulling communities of practice (CoP) together is over Wikis.  I found a very interesting example of this again on YouTube:  Communities of Practice Using Wiki by Dr. Brand Niemann.  After understanding how Wikis can be used for collaboration by a group online, I'm inclined to recommend we try this out at work...stay tuned on how well this is received.  

Literacies & the Digital Divide -- what's real

Having just wrapped up another great class at OISE (Digital Literacy/Digital Divide) -- I came away with some validated thoughts and very interesting insights.
We really took a good look and the digital divide--the realities of the digital divide and discussed how to reduce it.  It's almost like talking about the gap between the rich and the poor widening--but in this case, financial status may be a part of the divide but not necessarily so.  The reality of the digital divide has truly come through my work experience.  Having worked in a not-for-profit home and community care setting--the introduction of new technology whether it be physical hardware, applications or processes can be a very very daunting situation for many.  It took me some time to understand this, having grown up (well since university) with the internet (and email) being a staple in my life.  Even things like using a bank machine, paying at the gas pump, renewing my licence plate sticker at a kiosk at the mall are all seeming easy tasks that have to do with technology.  A few years back I attempted to teach my grandmother how to use the bank machine.  I expressed the benefits, no time limits, avoiding line-ups, sometimes avoiding fees...it took about 4 sessions together at the machine to really grasp that it was safe and that her money would still be there whenever she needed.  All her questions and objections were hardly anything i thought of myself when i jumped on the band wagon--but this was one indication of a digital divide -- how technology can be a new and scary thing for some who never knew technology to play such a personal role in things.

Getting back to work...i was saying i really began to realize the divide when first trying to communicate initiatives with all staff across the organization -- well there were a couple challenges, not all staff had email, not all staff knew what email is or how to sign-up, let alone access to read company communications.  There were also the challenges of using e-learning to educate staff on new company processes, applications or clinical knowledge when some staff were not able to navigate with a mouse or type on a keyboard.  What was to be done??  Well an environmental scan/assessment had to be done to really grasp what the reality was for those staff who i now see as part of that 'divide'.  Then a strategy to improve computer literacy across the organization.  A system of hands on skills development using a train-the-trainer model at each site.  Staff were able to learn the basics and then how to access some core business applications.
It's hard to say it is well received as this strategy is still in progress and associated with our 'going green' org-wide campaign (reduce paper and transmportation and training costs)--but I'm really looking forward to some end evaluation of the value perceived before and received after.

On another note, Jesse Hirsh was our guest speaker!  Having listened to him on my morning rides into the office on CBC moring (99.1 Toronto FM) with Andy Barry--i was super excited to put a face to the voice and learn about several new tech concepts like:  'augmented reality' and 'Bright-net'.  I'm inclined now to do more research on this digital divide whether it be because of age, ethnicity, language or financial background--that these are in fact barriers to internet entry (use).  Is this gap getting smaller and for what populations?
Oh so much more to say on this.  Stay tuned for now.