Where is the 'Community' in Community Networking Initiatives? Stories From the 'Third Spaces' of Connecting Canadians

Note: Author no longer working on this paper.What is a community-based initiative? Despite the fact that the term community is used in common agreement in everyday life, it clearly means very different things to different people, particularly with respect to government supported community-networking and informatics initiatives. This research concerns itself with the technologies, practices and discourses that constitute ‘community-based initiatives’, at two urban community centres in Canada, one on the West Coast in Vancouver, British Columbia and the other on the East Coast in Toronto, Ontario. This research aims to unpack how community values and relations are represented and supported in the negotiation, development and maintenance of ‘community-based initiatives’, with particular emphasis on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiatives at these sites. Questions explored include: What kinds of access do community-networking initiatives provide to community members? What kinds of community values are represented in these initiatives? What kinds of community relations do they foster? What discourses of community are enabled through ICT initiatives? How can community values be better represented and supported in community-based initiatives in the future.Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) - Initiative on the New Economy Public Outreach Grant; Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN