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Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 10:07:49 -0500
To: cd@MIT.EDU
From: mlbarrow@MIT.EDU (Michael L. Barrow)
Subject: Alan Shaw's networked Dorchester neighborhood
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>Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 16:40:20 -0400 (EDT)
>From: David J Rosen <DJRosen@world.std.com>
>Subject: Alan Shaw's networked Dorchester neighborhood
>To: cweis@nda.com
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Sender: owner-cweis@nda.com
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>Reply-To: cweis@nda.com
>
>This is a message forwarded from Communet.  The author,
>Kevin Tgomas Sullivan attended Alan Shaw's presenttaion at the
>Ties That Bind Conference in Cupertino.  He describes Alan's
>Community Network in Dorchester, which Alan has also
>presented at the BCS Computers and Social Change Conference.
>
>I wonder if the MBCWEIS could support hundreds of Boston
>neighborhood communities linked by computers like this.  Has
>anyone talked with Alan about the MBCWEIS?
>
>David Rosen
>
>
>==============================================================
>    #3          14-MAY-1994 23:15:45.14
>
>Subject: Re: Ties That Bind Conference
>X-To:         "Communet: Community and Civic Network Discussion List"
>    <COMMUNET@uvmvm.uvm.edu>, Stephen Covington
><cvington@NETCOM.COM>
>To: Multiple recipients of list COMMUNET <COMMUNET@uvmvm.uvm.edu>
>In-Reply-To:  <m0q0lJk-0008tSC@icicle.winternet.com>
>
>I too was stunned by the power of this gathering of people.  There were
>many excellent presentations.  One of my favorites was Alan Shaw's.
>
>*****
>
>Summary by Kevin Thomas Sullivan
>
>Alan Shaw's breakout session on Friday afternoon turned into an enthralling
>illustration of the power of community networks.  Alan has setup a 20
>terminal neighborhood electronic network in his own Boston community of
>Dorchester.  The network is called MUSIC (Muli-User Sessions in Community)
>and was developed at the MIT Media Lab where Alan is a graduate student.
>The network is designed as a tool to help community building efforts that
>are underway in this underprivileged community.
>
>Although the technology was interesting, by far the most exciting part of the
>presentation was the context and intentionality in which Alan is using the
>technology.  The talk ran longer than scheduled and generated a lot of
>excitement in the room.  I have selected excerpts from Alan's presentation
>that, I hope, capture the power of his ideas.
>
>Excerpts from Alan Shaw's breakout presentation at the "Ties That Bind,
>Building Community Networks" conference, May 6, 1994:
>
>        ...people don't seem to have any ideas, any paradigms, for active
>roles
>        in reshaping and in rethinking about how that community can exist.
>        Instead, people are looking for some outside agent to make the
>        difference, to change the setting.  It's like a child sitting in the
>        classroom, thinking that education is all about the teacher
>educating,
>        not about the person being involved in the activity.  The child after
>        awhile becomes very disconnected from the learning process...what we
>        want to see is neighborhoods where people are activists, where people
>        are really very much more involved in the process of shaping their
>        own community, then, they are now, particularly in communities which
>        are underprivileged...
>
>        ...if neighborhoods can heal themselves, if they can be the
>source of
>        some of their own healing, then what you want to do is empower those
>        neighbors to be that kind of an agent.  You want to give the
>neighbors
>        the tools that they'll need to provide the kind of relationships, and
>        the kind of activities in the community which do lead to that
>healing.
>        That's an active model, we want to help neighbors become activists.
>        We want to help the poor see themselves as being the source of their
>        own, in many cases, the source of their own salvation.  That requires
>        tools, it requires thinking about what it takes to help people
>who are
>        in a community, help them feel like what they can do is significant.
>        And what they can do as a group is empowering and unifying....
>
>        In the old days villages used to do that [organize positive
>things] all
>        the time.  The idea that it takes a village to raise a child is a
>theme
>        which we are kind of rallying around.  Which is that you need many
>        people, many types of relationships, to help provide all the things
>that
>        children need when they are growing up....
>
>        What helps us with infrastructure?  What can we do which can be a
>        forum so that people can pull together and talk about these types of
>        ideas, as well as any other number of issues that neighbors have to
>        face?  What can happen which can be a shared resource?  When you
>        have a community in the past, the word "common" was in that word
>        "unity" to create the word "community".   Where are the commons
>        now-a-days?  Where are the things that people share? ...where is the
>        commons that everybody takes part in, that the people believe is
>        owned jointly by them all?  Shared resources help form shared
>identity.
>
>        Now all of this can start to look not so daunting when we start
>talking
>        about information technology.  When you start talking about
>        community networking.  When you start talking about how people can
>        actually provide for themselves certain types of infrastructure,
>certain
>
>        types of home town meetings and shared resources....  [Demo and
>        Q&A for remainder of the session. kts]
>
>Towards the end of his presentation, Alan described and demonstrated the
>technical setup of the network.  The implementation is relatively straight
>forward with a computer placed in the homes of individuals in the
>neighborhood who are involved, or want to be involved, in organizing the
>community.  The computers are networked together using 14.4K modems
>with a graphical interface and sound capabilities.  The interface looks
>like a
>neighborhood with a set of buildings.  The buildings represent different
>places where neighborhood projects are run.  When a new community
>project is started, a new building is created.  Inside of each building
>are
>rooms that contain different types of information about the project.
>Information in the rooms can be contributed by any member of the
>community and is consider common, or shared, information.  When a
>neighbor contributes an idea (room) to a project, their name and personal
>icon appear as the author along with the text of the idea.
>
>Private email is also available, with each neighbor represented by a
>personalized "face" icon that they create.  Other features of the system
>include a neighborhood block map with streets and houses, where each
>house contains biographical information about the resident.  The biographical
>information can be obtained by clicking on the appropriate house on the
>block map.  The Boston Globe also has a room where it places community
>news items relating to the community.  People can also speak into the
>system via a microphone, and send voice mail messages back and forth.
>Search and chat features are also included.
>
>Alan closed his presentation with these observations:
>
>All the text, graphics and sound are there to help the neighbors see that it
>is malleable.  It is all stuff that they can get in and change and play with.
>
>The system keeps neighborhood ideas alive by making them more
>permanent, but also more malleable.
>
>The intention is to create a new relationship to information.  Rather than
>just consume information, you can start to add to the flow, can start to come
>up with things that are very critical.  When you put your ideas into the
>information system, you end up having a resource that everyone can share.
>As neighbors are more successful at organizing things, people have more
>reasons to pull together.
>
>Spending lots of time on-line with this system actually creates a context for
>getting outside of the home and becoming involved in projects.
>
>The system establishes an immediate infrastructure.
>
>Its critical to think about how we can foster ties with people we live next
>door to.
>
>Hopefully we will start to become villages again.
>
>Contact Information:
>
>Alan Shaw
>MIT Media Lab
>33 Algonquin Street
>
>
>Cambridge, MA 02124
>(617) 436-8048
>acs@media.mit.edu
>
>*****
>
>?|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|
>Kevin Thomas Sullivan                           <thomas@winternet.com>
>SCI, 4528 46th Ave S.                           <ketosu@well.sf.ca.us>
>Minneapolis, MN  55406                          Phone: (612) 722-7133
>/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/?
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>=====================================================
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