User:Eugene37/Sandbox/sandbox

Community informatics is a technique for looking at economic and social development within the construct of technology – online health communities, social networking websites, cultural awareness and enhancement through online connections and networks, electronic commerce, information exchanges, as well as a myriad of other aspects that contributes to creating a personal and group identity. Michael Gurstein says that community informatics is a technology strategy or discipline that connects at the community level economic and social development with the emergence of community and civic networks, electronic commerce, online participation, self help, virtual health communities, “Tele-centres,” as well as other types of online institutions and corporations.

The notion of community is very important in the development of individuals into actualized and productive adults in society, as well as the continuance of the society as a method of environmental survival, because it reallocates the ways in which resources are developed and consumed. As a culture, societies have to ensure their growth by continuing the norms and mores that are the basis of a way of life of a group of people. Utilizing the infrastructure of information through technology is a method of continuing cultures within the context of the information pipelines of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Once a cultural identity is defined within the context of technology, it can be replicated and disseminated through various means, including the sharing of information through websites, applications and databases, and through software file sharing. In this manner, a group with a cultural identity within the construct of technology infrastructure can allow for valuable exchanges within the spheres of economics, political power, high and popular culture, education, and entertainment.

With the advent of communications technologies through the Internet and the World Wide Web – since its inception, we have seen the exponential growth of enterprises ranging from electronic commerce, social networking, entertainment and education, as well as a myriad of other contrivances and file exchanges that allow for an ongoing cultural enrichment through technology. However, there has been a general lag as to which populations can benefit through these services through impediments such as geographic location, a lack of funds, gaps in technology and the expertise and skills that are required to operate these systems. Participation in using technology and information resources has to be bolstered across demographic areas, specifically amongst those groups that are socially and economically vulnerable – people in rural areas, disenfranchised populations, the elderly and handicapped. If intervention and measures to prevent the widening gap are not taken, we can see these marginal populations made even more at risk through rises in unemployment, information illiteracy, lack of educational opportunities, and a lack of political power to enact the necessary changes to their condition.

The Ruy Lopez is one the the strongest openings in chess!! Eugene37 (talk) 23:27, 4 October 2011 (UTC)