Developing a Community Based Participatory Project in Interior Alaska to Bridge the Digital Divide.

该奖项为PI提供两周的资金，与育空地区Flats学区的三个阿拉斯加原住民村庄一起探索一个基于社区的参与性研究（CBPR）项目，该项目将评估阿拉斯加农村的信息访问和延迟容忍网络（DTN）技术在阿拉斯加原住民社区的潜力，这些社区目前的互联网连接通常很差。据PI所知，DTN尚未在阿拉斯加使用，但最近已在拉普兰和斯洛文尼亚成功地进行了原型开发。自从汤普森在20世纪70年代担任育空地区扁平社区的图书管理员以来，他一直对改善阿拉斯加农村社区获得信息技术保持着兴趣。该项目将使汤普森通过与育空地区平地村庄的农村居民讨论，探索当代农村信息获取问题;其目的是创建一个CBPR研究项目，共同探索阿拉斯加内陆社区的数字鸿沟。通过互联网、万维网以及诸如网络搜索引擎等大众产品和诸如Facebook等社交媒体产品的增长，信息访问已经变得普遍。 这些产品的设计并不是为了支持不同文化的信息访问，例如阿拉斯加农村的文化。DTN本身是一种协议，承诺在人烟稀少的农村地区使通信在技术上更容易。如果信息获取系统是以社区参与的方式设计的，这种系统不仅便利农村获取信息，而且有望改善保健和其他关键基础设施，而这些都依赖互联网。 此外，该项目将增加阿拉斯加土著人民对信息科学的参与，并有可能改变阿拉斯加农村社区访问互联网的方式。

This award funds the PI for two-weeks to explore with three Alaska Native villages of the Yukon Flats School District a community based participatory research (CBPR) project that would assess rural Alaskan information access and the potential of Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology for use in Alaska Native communities where current internet connectivity is frequently poor. To the PI's knowledge DTN is not in use in Alaska, but has recently been successfully prototyped in the Lapland and Slovenia. Since Thompson served as the Librarian for Yukon Flat's Communities in the 1970's he has maintained an interest in improving rural Alaskan community access to information technologies. This project will enable Thompson to explore contemporary rural information access issues through discussions with rural residents in Yukon Flats villages; with the intent of creating a CBPR research project that will explore the digital divide in Interior Alaskan communities collaboratively. Information access has become widespread through the growth of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and mass products such as Web search engines and social media products such as Facebook. Such products are not designed to support information access optimally for different cultures, such as those of rural Alaska. The DTN itself is a protocol that promises to make communication technically easier in sparsely inhabited rural areas. When information access systems that are designed in a community-based participatory way, such systems not only facilitate rural information access but also hold promise to improve health care and other critical infrastructures, which all depend on the Internet. In addition, this project will increase the participation of Alaska Native people in information science with the potential for transforming the way rural Alaskan communities access the internet.