This brief review examines the growing body of research literature concerning non-profit electronic community networks, a type of communication network that was first developed by Lee Felsenstein with the Community Memory project in Berkeley, California in the 1970s and has since evolved and been replicated in many variant forms. Online community networks are defined here as an emerging form of computer-mediated communication for person to person connectivity using a computer network as well as a form of new media that is perhaps not technologically new, but certainly socially new. Online community networks use media such as email and interactive communication service features such as chat rooms to help people with shared interests understand their world and sometimes take action to change it. Researcher Andrew Cohill (1997) describes the close tie between communication and community:

In this literature review, I examine the observations made in several studies that explore online community networks. I examine the relationship of these studies to new media and draw upon the writings and perspectives of multiple researchers to augment the points made in the review. I use one small category of community building promoted by Phil Agre, community networks as democracy-enabling technologies, to frame the discussion of finding made by researchers. The concludes with recommendations about what direction researchers interested in exploring the complexities of economic, political, behavioral, and cultural institutional and technological issues related to electronic community networks might take.

The majority of the research reviewed here uses the case study method to examine small groups of online community networks. As with most case study findings, they are not easily generalized, but instead, they provide the opportunity for in depth understanding of each case (Stake, 1995 The literature reviewed here is also very young and no longitudinal studies are found for review as of this date. As research in this discrete area of study increase, we expect scholars to closely examine how these networks influence and enhance communication in the workplace. We also expect scholars to examine how people use networks in their personal lives and in their communities as democracy-enabling technologies.

Popular Literature

Popular literature sometimes presents cautionary and decidedly negative views of technology, new media, and its impact on our lives. Email, one form of new media, is described as impersonal, annoying to access, and often boring (Stoll, 1995). Oldenburg (1989) describes technological impacts on society in America as encouraging a narrow introspective world where we are increasingly encouraged to retreat to our technologically efficient homes where we can find safety, relaxation, entertainment, and companionship within, but, as a result, fail to develop a connection to the larger society. Popular literature also presents an equally utopian view of the new media depicting virtual communities springing forth to offer instant comprehensive communication avenues, repleat with a plethora of rich and diverse viewpoints, and the power to eradicate barriers that separate us as a people (Rheingold, 1993). Doheny-Farina (1996) takes a middle ground in the continuum of perspectives, urging us to direct and steer the powerful cultural trends that surround us, thoughtfully apply communication technologies to reintegrate people within their communities, and steadfastly maintain ethical uses of the technology in our work and private lives.

Scholarly Literature

Scholars have examined these networks, sometimes referring to them as online communities or civic networks, from viewpoints grounded in several disciplines. These include human resource development (Glaser, 2000), geography (Longan, 2000), urban planning (Beamish, 1995; Avis, 1995), and civic engagement and public policy making (Aikens, 1997; Schuler, 1996). Several studies are strongly identified with communication studies (Doheny-Farina, 1996; Guy, 1996) and some research is rooted in sociology (Virnoche, 1999).

Nearly all of the research begins with a definition of community. The definitions vary from those that define communities of interest where people may be widely dispersed to those that exist in geographic-based communities with geographic boundary lines. The relationship of society to technology is also defined early on in most of the research literature. The prevalent broad view of the relationship takes the position that technology and society shape one another. Researcher Phil Agre (1999) captures this concept of the relationship:

Researcher Phil Agre (1998) writes about democratic technology movements that involve community building through knowledge sharing. Agre (1997) divides the movement into three types. The first is movements interested in collective activities and civil liberties. Research includes privacy, encryption, and the preservation of the social role of libraries, educational networking and the extended social role of networks in communities. The second type is centered in policy building discussions related to access issues and full participation in society. The third type is characterized by research into the processes through which technologies are designed, with participatory design occupying the focal point of this study. Agre finds in his research that as knowledge is shared between diverse groups of people, social networks grow into robust communication and information networks--online communities that use new media to connect people and diffuse information. The new networks extend and transform existing social networks.

Scholars who have explored diffusion of information include Granovetter (1995) who found evidence that weak ties, especially between members of diverse and sometimes distant work groups, facilitate transfer of ideas in the workplace. Rogers and Kincaid (1981) developed a new paradigm for research in communication networks, providing tools to trace the process of information exchange. Rogers (1983) studied the social psychological factors of diffusion in groups who adopt technology at different points in time, developing categories of adopters he named as the innovator, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and late adopters. Putnam (1995), through the lens of public policy development, sparked discussion of the concept of social capital as an outcome of building social networks, social trust, and shared norms, all of which he believes might facilitate community building. Putnam urges researchers to develop empirical evidence that documents the impact of electronic networks that use new communication media on the building of social capital. Through research, we need to develop a better understanding of the relationship of the new media and new communication networks to civic engagement and the creation of social capital. Some research is moving in that direction.

Social Roles

Dr. Geoffrey Scott Aikens, between 1993 and 1996, documented the establishment of Minnesota's E-Democracy effort and used it as a case study research project. Aikens' work fits into the category Agre describes as a movement interested in collective activities and civil liberties through the use of networks in communities and begins to address Putnam's request. The Minnesota E-Democray Project was conducted during the 1994 election season. Aikens was able to measure subscription rates and participation in the online public forums and debates held to encourage public participation in the democratic process of local and national elections. He found a correlation between media coverage of the Minnesota E-Democracy Project and the number of subscribers to the online debates and forums. He found evidence in the numbers and using surveys after the elections that the traditional media played an important role in bolstering the use of the new networking forums. In his study, Aikens strives to provide new data about the nature of citizenship and the feasibility of the structures that form using new media and new technologies that deepen and enrich democracy. He ties together the new communication technologies with the study of democratic theory. In his investigation, he points to evidence left by the founding fathers of democracy in America that illustrates their conscious decisions to establish a system that could reap the benefits of mutual cooperation and community building, open channels of face-to-face communication, and at the same time provide for strong autonomous local rule. He ties the old and the new together and illustrates that this strategy has been used for a great many years. Thomas Jefferson, for example, established extensive public works projects building roads and canals specifically to connect people. Jefferson said: "New channels of communication will be opened between the states, the lines of separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their union cemented by new and indestructible ties" (cited in Aikens, 1997).

According to Aikens (1997) Alexis de Tocqueville, another observer, of the American system as it existed in 1831 and 1832, pointed out that the uniquely American system of face-to-face meetings provided a structure of stability for its budding democratic features. Tocqueville states: "Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it" (cited in Aikens, 1997). These early efforts to establish face-to-face communication systems and engage the people in forming public opinion paved the path for telegraphy and telephony, and now make is possible to incorporate the use of new media and computer-mediated communication activity including participatory inventions like online community networks. Aikens further points out that this concept dates back to pre-digital age work done by Barber in the 1980s that envisioned nation-wide video-text systems through which citizens could use new communication technologies to engage in local, regional, and national democratic political meetings.

Experiments conducted by Abramson, Arterton, and Orren (1989) using video technology as another computer-mediated communication technology to facilitate participation in the democratic process, also precede the current digital age. Hiltz and Turoff, in their landmark work, The Network Nation, aimed in the first edition in 1978 to discuss computerized conferencing as a new media and produced simultaneously a work that encourages thinking about the entire nation as a collection of communities. Another researcher, Tomita (1980), finds that new computer-mediated communication technologies progressively move toward increased communication horizontally and especially between people in medium sized groupings.

Aikens (1997) adds to this work by systematically studying the forum threads and public electronic conversational activity located in the electronic archives of the Minnesota E-Democracy project. He draws conclusions about the manner in which a new technology system of public opinion gathering compares with the traditional forms of mass media. Aikens finds that new communication media can be viewed as an integral part of an emerging civic revival, at least in Minnesota, a state with a traditionally strong civic tradition and a population that was largely homogeneous during the 1993-1996 study period. He proposes that aspects of computer-mediated communications can support democratic communication because it enables many-to-many discussions instead of one (the existing power structure) broadcasting to the masses. It can be argued that Aikens' selection of Minnesota for this case study represents an extreme case. Other more heterogeneous areas may not foster as active a civic engagement in the local and national political processes as Minnesota. Aikens is continuing his research to develop democratic forums by conducting an experiment in the United Kingdom with the establishment of the UK Citizens Online Democracy network.

London (1995) also explores the democratic issues and influence of computer-mediated communications in what he terms teledemocracy compared to deliberative democracy where he hypothesizes that new communications media can connect citizens to each other and to their elected officials, and in doing so, make government more accountable to citizens. He finds pros and cons to the effort including thoughtful public debate, but too little time for periods of discussion and reflection. He finds that people will change personal opinions as a result of online debate, but also finds evidence of "group think" influences in decision-making. He compares two forms of public talk using electronic technologies, refers to rational choice theories that lead to the logic of collective action, and contrasts that with reasoned discussions of the common good that are rooted in the freedom to speak principles. Using evidence from his research, he concludes that it is still uncertain whether the new technologies are compatible with democratic discourse and decision making.

Policy Building

A second category of community building, according to Agre (1997), centers on policy issues related to access and the ability to provide full participation in society to all. Several researchers have addressed access issues looking at the local community as a geographic-based place and determining what constitutes the "community" in local community networks. Longan (2000) conducted a web-based study of ninety-six community networks and followed that effort by conducting face-to-face interviews with leaders and members of five community networks located in the United States. His research draws upon the commonalities and differences in the data to form the conclusion that the primary goal of most community networks is to provide access to local information. Another commonality is the hope that the community networks will provide the mechanisms needed to use electronic communication for online local discussions. Most of the networks participating in Longan's research intended to provide universal access within a prescribed geographic area. As Longan states it, his research "focuses attention on the implications of community networking for both places and communities" (p. 9).

Electronic spaces are dependent on physical places and Longan's research looks specifically at the efforts of community networks to leverage place-based access to computer networks in order to gain mobility useful for confronting processes of globalization. His conclusions are based on an in-depth look at both online and off-line settings. He finds (a) potential for building real world communities and (b) community networks that have not yet fulfilled their potential for community building. He takes into account the idea that community might be transformed by social, political, and economic change and how community networks may respond to and also facilitate change in the meaning of community. This shaping effect is similar to discussions found in adaptive structuration theory (Poole & DeSanctis, 1990) where we can examine a model for understanding group use of technology. Longan with his grounding in geography, references Massey (1994) whose definition of place includes a global sense of place using an example of being extroverted in focus where the community consciousness is aware of its links to the wider world and where the community integrates the local and the global in a positive manner. Longan also references Schuler (1996) who describes in his research the "new community" that it is devoted to democratic problem solving through awareness of the social and political environments in which it is embedded and is included. Castells (1997) takes us further, explaining that the key to creating social movements that address global processes is to extend community and place-based loyalties to more global scales without losing their grounding in place. Longan says:

Longan found that community networks emphasized both information and communicative services. Public access sites, he found, combine a politics of mobility and access with a sense of place, creating a global sense of place. Access was a predominant theme in the mission statements of the community networks he examined online with eighty-seven of the ninety-six found mentioning access. He found that the predominant goal of community networks is to provide access to information for the purposes of answering specific questions, helping community members achieve specific goals and learning about services available in the community, but not necessarily achieving mutual understandings or creating a broader sense of community. Fifty-four percent of the community network mission statements refer to the goal of providing an online setting for interactive and two-way communication among people. Some mention providing a public space and a forum for public debate and public discourse, others mention participation in civic affairs and politics at local, regional and national levels. Private email was typically associated with the community network. Longan found that the predominant sense of place is absolute. Access was important, however, the community networks he studied tended to work with an absolute sense of place within which they planned to provide equitable access. Nineteen percent of the networks examined made it clear that disadvantaged or under-served populations were targeted for access, committing the network to providing access sites in public places and enhancing opportunities to make the technology understandable and available to all. Seventeen of the mission statements explicitly mention training and education in electronic communications literacy tied to the goal of equitable access. Only one of the mission statements examined mentioned economic development as a primary goal.

Beamish (1995) conducted a similar examination of community-based computer networks and found that if community networks are to fulfill their long-term goals, more effort must be placed on designing systems that encourage public discussion and debate--the communicative aspects. She analyzed the words and actions of community network activists and from that analysis, identifies five assumptions about network technologies that inform the work of the network activist. These include (a) the new communication technologies and their increasing importance to economic and social development, (b) reinforcement using new technologies of more decentralized modes of communication, (c) the tendency of the new technologies to reinforce the face-to-face patterns of communication that pre-date online networking, (d) community networks are equivalent to public utilities, and (e) community networks are desirable despite rapidly changing technologies and public policies. Beamish recommends further research to identify successful community network models. Bajjaly (1999) offers more models in his book aimed squarely at inspiring librarians to meet the challenge of community networking. He identified and describes 215 established community networks in the United States and Canada and using interviews leaders in the networks provides data that describes the importance of community networking and how to establish community networks that encourage community participation. New media are included in the community network features and services include electronic mail and interactive group communications that foster two-way interaction from bulletin board activity to chat capabilities in real time.

Design

How are community networks designed so that all can participate? This question leads us to Agre's third category in the democratic technology movement: processes through which technologies are designed, most often these processes are termed participatory design. Jones (1998) points out that we face a predicament. We have to figure out how to attend to the social, economic, and political connections that are impinging on us, taking up more and more of our time and energy, destroying our privacy, and splitting our attention into fragmented and disordered connections using email, telephone, fax, and community networks. Licklider and Taylor's 1968 predictions of what our computer-mediated communications systems should offer were quite different. They wrote:

How can we bridge the gap between the fragmented disorder some express feeling today and the happier life for the on-line individual described by futurists in 1968? Some feel that user-centered participatory design holds the answer and that community networks should be designed through user participation, allowing the users to shape the network design, making the networks as diverse and inclusive as possible. Landauer (1995) points out that computers have not contributed nearly as much to labor productivity as anticipated and the efficiency effects of computer applications designed without using user-centered methods improved only slowly. Schuler (1996) points out that the same is true for community networking. He calls for participatory action research, where people affected have a critical role in the process, where action is necessary, where experiments are planned and systematically carried out, and where learning how to engage people in their community is paramount. The participatory design movement originated in Scandinavia as a collaboration process for the development of technological systems between unionists and academic computer scientists with an interest in democratic process. In this country, the critical insight that participants can offer is just beginning to be recognized and valued as unavailable elsewhere. The participatory user-centered design approach seems well suited to foster community involvement in community network development. Schuler suggests we consciously use participatory action research in work with community network development. He names twenty critical indicators for sustainable community that can be systematically collected and studied, and suggests that as learners and participants, we will shape community network communication and information delivery systems to better fit the fabric of society. Just as Landauer suggests that we learn from learning and make our learning time both a diagnostic and design object, Schuler suggests that the collection and study of sustainable community data will help the community network strengthen and grow. Longan (2000) reports that most of the community network organizers he interviewed were unaware of how their community network building efforts in fact resulted in a larger goal, community building in society. In addition, Longan found that community network organizers rarely reached out beyond their own effort to communicate with others who are making the same effort to build community elsewhere. These pieces of research suggest that more study is needed.

The researcher makes assumptions, operationalizes, tests, and reports on the results, helping us to clarify, sort through, and sometimes challenge the rich variety of concepts and theories that we form to help understand our world and our place in it. The findings in the research reviewed here help us incrementally shape our examination of how communication technologies help shape our world and how our activities and knowledge shape the information and communication systems we form. Community networks are one emerging system that Agre finds linked to the democratic process. Aikens proposes that computer-mediated communications can support democratic communication because it enables many-to-many discussions and broadens the base of power. London's research results illustrate pros and cons of the many-to-many communication structure available in community networks, where useful and thoughtful public debate occurs, but too little time for discussion and reflection on the debate is provided in the exchanges. Longan's research found that access was important, however, the community networks he studied tended to work with an absolute sense of place within which they planned to provide equitable access. This research illustrates the boundary spanning nature of the community network and opens the way for collaborative study across disciplines as we seek more data to explain how groups come together and work together. As we move from the case study into additional empirical field work with community networks, I believe we will see more comparison between the democratic enabling functions of the community network in the United States and the adaptations that are made in other non-democratic nations around the world. Computer-mediated communication research has investigated the use of new media in the workplace most heavily, but online interactions and interpersonal connections outside of the workplace now make room for a different and rich line of research and theory construction. This research can then be compared to what has been found to be representative of mediated communication in the workplace.

As Schuler suggests, longitudinally constructed study of computer-mediated communication systems that involve or are a part of community networks is needed to observe and track changes over time. Longitudinal study of community networks can reveal potential cycles of growth and decay and foster sustainability for computer-mediated communication systems and community networks. Data stores from sustainable communities and areas across North America merit comparison and empirical examination so that trends common to participant cities and rural areas can be experimentally tested in areas that experience less successful or different patterns of development and economic well being.

A historical review and examination of technologies at the end the 19^th Century has been prepared by Beniger and published in a book, The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society, helping set the stage for why computers have become so crucial in our age. It is not too early to begin the process of data collection for the historical review of technology at the end the 20^th century that will supplement Beniger's work by documenting the new media and computer-mediated communication systems, including online community networks and their role in fostering communication in shared interest and geographic-based communities. Such a work might include an examination of how umbrella community networking organizations such as the Association for Community Networking influence or shape community networking activities or how work of the Center for Civic Networking shaped the emerging National Information Infrastructure in this country. It might focus on use differences based on gender, network size, and the motivations of key leaders who initiate community networks. It may compare communities of shared-interest across occupational areas, invisible colleges, or other areas of shared interest. It may chronicle the success of community networks in commercially-based, workplace-based, and geographically-based environments.

Researchers in participatory action design need to investigate and experiment with alternative ways to spread the benefits of computer-mediated communication and information technology access in public spaces, and perhaps this research and experimentation will prove that access is provided more efficiently or more suitably in a variety of locations. This experimentation may lead to greater involvement of other agencies and development of new public spaces and may enlarge and increase public spaces for community building activity. As commercial and Internet-based communities grow to foster interpersonal relationships and perhaps collective action, these community networks will provide a new dimension for the research that may lead to analysis of varying structures, group purposes, and norm building.

This brief and non-exhaustive literature review selectively discusses research conducted largely in the 1990s and is intentionally constructed around three categories termed by Agre as part of community building in the democratic technology movement in order to narrow the review. Agre's categories include (a) movements interested in collective activities and civil liberties related to privacy, encryption, and the preservation of the social role of libraries in society, educational networking, and the extended social role of networks in communities; (b) policy related to access issues and full participation by all in society, and (c) processes through which technologies are designed with participatory design occupying the center position in the discussion. Research on community building and community networking is drawn from research areas that represent communication studies, geography, urban studies, and public policy. This literature review demonstrates that although the research on community networks is situated in different disciplines, strong ties to computer-mediated communication and the new media emerge as important in enabling our democratic processes. It also suggests that this area of research is very young and more field research is needed to fully understand the complexities and outcomes that we are witnessing.

References