User:Maldosari/sandbox

Lead Section
Community informatics (CI) is an interdisciplinary field that is concerned with using information and communication technology (ICT) to empower members of communities and support their social, cultural, and economic development.

Understanding Communities
It is crucial to know how communities are formed and evolved and how the participation to a community occurs and differs while formation process. Understanding the nature of communities and the participation process will surely ensure designing and implemenameting a successful ICT solution that benefits members of community while communicating with each other or performing certain tasks. The following points include a brief description of the nature of each potential community formation. A group of people may form a community according to the place in which they live, enjoy staying, and work. They usually participate in communities within these three places since they gather together on consistent basis so that it is highly expected that such community is formed. Beside the home and the work gathering, people like to spend their time at informal places called third places in where they meet their new or old friends or have a chance to meet new people. A group of people may form a community as they have frequent direct interactions or live in close proximity to each other. The members of such community may have strong bond and focused common goals which give them a higher status over other communities. Moreover, as the number of the members increases, the community may become reputable and has a higher status over other communities. A group of people may form a community as they have common shared identity. People may form such community to support and advocate common shared values, morals or norms in which they believe. Such a community may have a set of symbols and be associated with a status over other communities. The inclusion and the exclusion to such community depend on whether or not a member share the same identity with others in the community. For instance, people who descend from one origin may form a community in which only people from that origin can join the community even though they do not know each other in advance. A group of people may form a community as they have similar affinity for a particular activity, experience, or subject. The geographical location is not necessary while forming such community, and the inclusion and the exclusion to such community depends on whether a new member has that affinity or not. A group of people may form a community if they share a similar experience in a distinct life stage. The experience could be related to the members themselves or to their relatives, such as their children. For instance, parents of elementary school children may form a community in which they care about their children while in school. As it is mentioned in the previous community formation, the members of such community have a common interest which is caring about their children while in school. This type of community may persist over time, but the inclusion and the exclusion to it may happen consistently as people are no longer in that distinct life stage. A group of people who share a similar profession may form a community in which they work to attain their goals and advance in their profession. Three important concepts are considered while forming community of practice which are mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. In a community of practice, the members have to be mutually engaged with each other by establishing collaborative relationships that will allow them to willingly work on certain joint activities. In the second concept which is joint enterprise, the members of a community of practice are supposed to discuss and agree upon the work responsibilities so that they can work in harmony, and each member knows his responsibility and his expected contributions to the community. In addition to these two concepts, the members of the community of practice have a shared repertoire of procedures or ways to perform certain tasks. They usually agree upon these procedures and practices that they establish and develop over time.
 * Community as a place
 * Community as a socio-spatial entity
 * Community as links between people
 * Community of interests
 * Communities linked to life stage
 * Communities of practice

Editing Practice
Second module: Editing Basics bold [| Social Computing]

University of Pittsburgh

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