Community Network Analysis (CNA)Project

Dr Peter Day, Dr Jon Don,Richard Cupidi,

Mark Walker, Anne Stafford & Keith Beadle

Community Research• Our partnerships and activities with

communities are:– intended to empower participating

communities– shaped by community assets and

resources but driven by community needs• community needs are what drive our

academic interest and activities.

Praxis in Participatory Action Research

KnowledgeGeneration

Critical Self-Evaluation Debate

EndogenousParticipatory

Action

Melkote, S.R. 2003. Theories of Development Communication. In Mody, B. (ed). International and Development Communication: A 21st-Century Perspective. London: Sage. p139

- Power implications- Relationship between researcher and

community Doing with- Not expert & subject

Project aimsUtilising a range of participatory methodological tools and approaches, CNA aims to:• Investigate the potential, for adoption by

geographic communities and communities of practice/interest, of network technologies (including mobile telephony) as tools for building and sustaining social capital.

• Test, through social network analysis, the impact of ICTs on the social ties and cohesion of community groups and networks through active communications and information flows.

What is the CNA project?

Nationally funded research project based on principles of community participation and mutualityCommunity information flows & communication patterns/behaviourIf and how ICTs can be, or are being, used as tools to build active, healthy communities

Project overview

Map information & communication resources Map assets Needs analysis

1) Profiling the community

4) Community communications space

3) Participatory learning workshops

2) Social network analysis

You can contact the CNA project team by phoning us on 01273 642550 or 0774 3878340. Alternatively you can e-mail us at peter@cna.org.uk or richard@cna.org.uk. Our postal address is Peter Day, CNA Project, CMIS, Watts Building, University of Brighton, Moulsecoomb, Brighton, BN2 4GJ.

1st 12 months of project• Engaging with community &

voluntary sector– How?

• Baseline research– Sussex Community Internet Project

(SCIP) for P2B.net project– Communities of Interest Network (COIN)

Exploring the landscape• A report on services, resources,

participation and gaps for Communities of Interest in 15 Neighbourhood Renewal Areas in Brighton & Hove– Gap in communication, understanding and

collaboration– Need to achieve greater synergy – Improve empowerment & capacity building – Nature of facilities & resources– Desire to network & engage with others

Needsand

wants

Newtechnologies

Available technologies

Community groups

CNA project team and steering

group

Dreams

Hopes

Possibilities

Technology, the community and us

What, for instance, could we provide?

• blogs• mailing lists• wikis• content management• contact management/finding people and

places• calendars and schedules• image libraries• shared links• announcements• for sale/ wanted• adverts• shared drawing spaces• RSS feeds• webmeetings• podcasts• learning management systems• database integration/publication• peer to peer services• GIS• design services• integration services

• forums• chatrooms• instant messenging• internet service provision• webcams• polls and surveys• e-learning• games• graffiti• interactive whiteboard• video conferencing• MMS/SMS messageboards• news and articles• GPS services• self-organising/social software• groupware• administration• statistics• site/domain management• document conversion tools• authoring tools• etc

What community groups want• content / site management / blogs /

wikis• mailing lists / email / forums / chat• database publication• hosting and support• search• statistics• errr…

Sustainable technologies• Problems:

– safe exploration and experimentation

– when the project ends

• Some (partial) solutions:– open source / open

standards– clustered / redundant– flexible / evolvable / self-

organising

Technology development

Sandbox (CNA)

Stable community server (SCIP)

Engaging the community• Stories from a story-telling workshop

– Geraldine’s story– Geraldine & Una’s stories

• Developing collaborative partnerships

– Dialogue talking & listening– Building trust working at the participant’s pace– Takes time requires patience and a lot of hard

work– Expect the unexpected be prepared to hear

unwanted or unpalatable things– Frustrating but results will be worth it

Questions?• web

http://www.cna.org.uk• email

– peter@cna.org.uk– richard@cna.org.uk– jon@cna.org.uk– mark@cna.org.uk