Relationships with existing community projects

[Richard McKeever]

I'm involved with a new neighbourhood site in North London in a
locality with a very active community sector... albeit traditional
residents and tenants groups

If, as Robert Putnam has suggested, "...social capital may turn out to
be a *prerequisite for* rather than a *consequence of* effective
computer mediated communication" ...what role should a new
neighbourhood network play in relation to a wealth of existing local
commuity led activity?

Has anyone else experience (positive or negative) of setting up
something new in an area where community engagement is already
visible?

Richard McKeever

[Hugh Flouch]

Interesting area Richard. This is something I was discussing earlier in the
day with a client.

It would be useful to pick up on other people's thinking and experiences on
how the very often informal nature of local online meshes with the usually
more formal established community groups. Where are the synergies and where
are the potential clashes?

Hugh Flouch
Networked Neighbourhoods

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[william perrin]

i'd go to that - do a lot of it in kings cross. the website came out
of trad community activism

in this site in sheffield we got a set of local activists to do the
site

http://heeleyonline.wordpress.com/

cheers

w

On Sep 21, 7:12 pm, Richard McKeever <richard.mckee...@community-

[Pauline Sargent]

not sure how many sessions I can squeeze in but this interests me as well.

So far Drimnagh is Good has recieved positive verbal comments, when I am out & about, from other community activists. I think it has made them review & think about how they use their own sites. I notice our local Drimnagh Residents Association has been quite active on theirs. Which is great. The more people talking & commenting online & offline the better.

What regular residents think of it? I'm not really sure. My immediate neighbours haven't even looked at it as they just don't get what we are trying to do.

Not one councillor or TD has acknowledged the site in any way.Even though we contacted them & requested their full contact details for this post. Same with the local council & service providers. However, it is early days & the site will have to build its credability.  

We did ask the local policing forum could we post details of the community guards like Newcastle rocks did here & I think we totally shocked them with that request. So have a lot more work to do there.

What is positive is that people who I haven't met or heard of in the community are really engaging with the site & it has even provided the impetus for one woman to set up a Friends of the Canal group. Their first clean up is in October. 

Hoep this helps.

Pauline

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[Eileen Conn]

It seems similar to the issues raised for how any new local input
meshes with the already other informal networks as well as strutured
groups - both off line and on line. There are some new nationally
inspired initiatives being floated into local neighbourhoods by
relative newcomers who don’t link in with existing networks and groups
as they aren’t familiar with them. These new initiatives all use
digital media in some way but not necessarily as their main product /
project. An important issue is how people can be helped to become
aware of how to find out what is going on in an area easily and how to
link with it all. That is maybe what local websites could be
encouraged to do - to gather info about local community groups and
networks and a brief blurb about them, contact details and if online,
their weblinks and email addresses?
Eileen

On Sep 21, 10:57 pm, Hugh Flouch

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[Richard McKeever]

Eileen
I think your point about any new initiative meshing with the existing
networks is spot-on. Offering a platfom to more easily agregate and
share "commuity" news and information is a really useful offer for a
local site. I think where a local site can add significant value is by
having dialogue - in plain sight - about the local issues and
activities. (Forums, comments on blogs, uploading event information
etc) Its that shift from broadcast to conversation that is key for me
- and means local people can be co-creators of the content - not just
passive consumers of a formal organisation's centralised messages..

Richard
www.bowesandbounds.org

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[Paul Woodman]

We have community news, in the form of a newsfeed on the local page, though
we are massively lacking in the community as a whole and our site currently
relies solely on user generated information. EG www.zubworld.com/clifton .
So at the moment we're relying very heavily on a prolific user/owner or a
number of enthusiastic followers.

Regards
Paul

[David Barry]

I think the relationship between existing networks and digital media
initiatives is going to be both complex and two way.
Existing initiatives have after all existed without digital media. So
they are going to get involved if it enables them to do things they
already do, but cheaper and better. An example would be a newsletter
they produce already, but which has to be shoved through peoples'
letter boxes by volunteers. With email the task quite different.

However were existing networks are not there then things like the
enabling of conversation could be most important. Conversations can
start electronically which would not otherwise have started, and these
are what matter.



On Sep 23, 9:52 am, Richard McKeever <richard.mckee...@community-

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