Jeff's Community Informatics Projects

Introduction

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In recent history we have seen the progression from a primarily industrialized modern American society to a global, fluid, and fast paced information era that encompasses virtually every aspect of our lives.  Production and consumption, exchange and ownership of information, and even our perceptions of identity and community have all experienced paradigm shifts with the coming of the information age.  Some contend that we as a society are in the midst of a revolutionary experience—a fundamental transformation of the “basic nature of society and the conditions for life itself” (Alkalimat 2004, p. 3).  The availability and specialization of information has skyrocketed as the internet has become an increasingly ubiquitous aspect of the first world.  Just as people of the past came to depend and thrive upon electricity, the information revolution occurring developed world is now driven by information technology.  For most people in the U.S. computers have become directly associated with the internet, and many other devices such as cell phones, TV’s, mp3 players, and more have begun to follow suit.  The new forms of media embedded in and enabled by the internet open up a new world of innovations, expressions, relationships, and communities.  Perhaps more than ever before, the heterogeneity evident in the U.S. (and international) social mesh calls for new potentially revolutionary and anti-disciplinary models of epistemology and analysis.

Critical theory rather curtly brings us to a halt, however, when considering the state of affairs wrought by the coming of the information age.  In a world so interconnected and tumultuously diverse not everyone shares the same experience with information technologies.  The “Digital Divide,” a contested term that arose in the mid-90’s, has become a commonly adopted¹ conceptualization of the inequalities that have surfaced in light of the information revolution.  Though the term often refers to the level of access to technology it also fundamentally relates to issues of “workforce development, architectural and urban planning, youth and social welfare, and […] education” (Alkalimat 2004, p. 1).  Issues of inequality and disadvantage are quintessentially intersectional in nature, but increasingly information technology is becoming an even stronger factor of influence.  Researchers have examined the internet for its substantive influences on community and social capital, political participation, organizations and economic institutions, cultural diversity and participation, and more (DiMaggio et al. 2001).  Indeed, with the coming of Web 2.0² most scholars now agree that the internet has reached a point of ubiquity and merits increasingly thorough and specialized studies (Lievrouw 2004, Haythornthwaite and Nielson 2007).  If disadvantaged (or disenfranchised) populations are ever to reach full (or even partial) equality they must remedy the digital divide, or as will be explained, fully address digital inequality.

The plight of the African American people is thoroughly rooted in a history of struggle (Alkalimat 2004).  The process of industrialization and globalization, taking the form of colonialism (and later neo-colonialism) has fueled the oppression of nearly all of those of African descent.  A legacy of slavery and institutionalized racism, from the overt Jim Crow laws to the covert real-estate discrimination during the formation of modern suburbia, has left the African American people in particular as one of the most oppressed and impoverished groups in America.  The Civil Rights Movement sought to fight overt institutional discrimination, and in many ways succeeded, but Black people today still start off with fewer resources and opportunities and face many new kinds of discrimination.  One such form of discrimination comes as digital inequality; economic and educational conditions that force the need to depend on public computing and internet resources.  African Americans, as a people, however, have proven to be incredibly resilient and adaptive and have maintained a strong cultural identity over time.
The issue of the digital divide and struggle of the African American people collide to create a point of conjecture: a drastic need to keep up with the new fleeting and emergent information society and an opportunity for social and economic mobility fueled by the internet.  This complexity is an issue of community informatics and cyberpower,³ as it needs to be fundamentally motivated and engaged by the African American community and also requires consideration of the role that information technology plays in determining social equity. 

Libraries remain a social service institution that is of particular value in affording (providing) the means to overcome the digital divide to the African American population.  This paper calls for a thorough assessment of the extent to which they execute this mission and examines several Illinois-based African American populations and the libraries that serve them.  Though it is only exploratory it (crucially) seeds the ground for future in-depth and extensive studies on the topic.

The structure of this paper is loosely⁴ based on what is known as the D-7 method.  This means it first (1) defines a social issue, which in this case is the digital divide (or inequality), the context of the contemporary African-American community, and the role of libraries in bringing about technological change for this community.  A series of research questions are proposed thereafter to explore and evaluate computer, internet, and correspondent policy and staff resources in libraries across Illinois.  This is followed by an explanation of the (2) data collection process and dual (two-way) (3) digitization, which in turn leads to (4) discovery.  Issues of (5) design and (6) dissemination are also discussed and the work leaves off on a note of the (7) difference all of this makes.