Abstract
Theories of networked individualism and forms of urban alienation challenge the continued purpose and relevance of conventional community tools in urban neighbourhood. However, the majority of urban residents surveyed in this research still believe that there are people living in their immediate neighbourhood who may share their interests or who are at least personally compatible, but they do not know them. Web-based community networking systems have the potential to facilitate intra-neighbourhood interaction and support community-building efforts. Community networking studies have shown that technical connectivity alone does not ensure community and that new and weak communities do not benefit from community networking systems as much as existing and strong communities do. This paper builds on these findings to present a methodology combining principles of participation, animation and design. This approach builds on intrinsic motivation in residents to find out about and meet one another in a private and inobtrusive way. It encourages residents to take social ownership of the community-building process and the community network. The approach recognises the network qualities in the communicative ecology of urban residents and supplements collective approaches towards community-building with personalised networking strategies.
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Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Building & Bridging Community Networks Conference: Knowledge, Innovation & Diversity through Communication, March 31–April 2, 2004, Brighton, UK. Associate Professor Marcus Foth was the recipient of an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery funding scheme (DP0663854). Further support has been received from the Queensland Government’s Department of Housing and the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID). Thanks to Greg Hearn, Peter Day, Wal Taylor, Larry Stillman, the conference audience in Brighton and the anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and feedback on earlier versions of this paper.
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Foth, M. Participation, animation, design: a tripartite approach to urban community networking. AI & Soc 25, 335–343 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0263-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0263-9