New technology, communities, and networking: problems and prospects for orchestrating change

This paper discusses the concept of community networking using new technologies. It specifically focuses on relatively large-scale town networks, where the network has outside sponsorship, and provides some examples of these networks. After examining the motivation for community networks, we attempt to see to what extent local concerns are being met in these social experiments. Unfortunately, there is a serious shortage of evaluation studies on many of these networks. In the final third of the paper, we discuss in more detail the eircom Ennis Information Age Town (eEIAT) project in Ireland, and provide some information on an on-going project, in which we are involved, concerning the design of community networking centres.