ITR: Interdisciplinary Views of the Blacksburg Electronic Village

该项目评估了布莱克斯堡电子村的使用和社会影响，这是20世纪90年代美国著名的社区网络项目之一。它采用社区调查，详细的访谈，会话记录，参与性评估论坛，和各种心理量表。它解决了各种关键问题：谁参与社区网络？网络是用来做什么的？当地的商业活动和机会是如何改变的，网络的直接原因是什么？获取地方政府信息或参与公共决策的机会在哪些方面发生了变化？对社区生活、社区健康和福祉有什么后果？如何使社区生活的参与更广泛或更多样化？人们在社区网络环境中比在一般的互联网环境中更安全吗？他们觉得自己的个人数据更安全吗？社区网络能否增强社区集体自我效能感的自我感知？布莱克斯堡社区的社会资本是否因BEV而增加？整个社会不平等参与的原因和影响是什么？社区网络的愿景是鼓舞人心的;它通过计算将创造性参与扩展到公民。对这些新机会的系统评价是及时和适当的。

This project evaluates the use and social impacts of Blacksburg Electronic Village, one of the prominent American community networking projects of the 1990s. It employs community surveys, detailed interviews, session logging, a participatory evaluation forum, and a variety of psychological scales. It addresses a variety of key issues: Who participates in community networks? What are the networks used for? How are local business activities and opportunities changed, and how direct a cause is the network? In what ways does access to local government information, or to public decision-making change? What are the consequences for community life, and for community health and well-being? How is participation in community life greater or more diverse? Do people feel safer in a community networking context than in the general Internet context? Do they feel their personal data is safer? Can a community network enhance self-perceptions of collective self-efficacy in the community? Has the social capital of the Blacksburg community increased as a consequence of the BEV? And what are the causes and effects of unequal participation throughout the community? The vision of community networking is inspiring; it extends creative participation to citizens through computing. Systematic evaluation of these new opportunities is timely and appropriate.