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It's about how organisations within a community can use technology as a catalyst or supporting tool to support ideas and create social action or change within that community," Amy Gadd, senior network manager of the community hubs project, told E-Government Bulletin. All the hubs' progress will also be measured over the funded period up to April 2013, to evaluate its impact. "We'll be creating case studies as we go, particularly in terms of how technology has made a change", said Gadd. "We're not expecting massive changes, they may be quite small, but significant to that community. And we'll be pulling some of those stories out, spreading them through the UK Online Centres network, so that others can follow.

"August and September, in partnership with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), I conducted a national survey of IEDC members and others affiliated with IEDC. The primary goal was to get a snapshot of how broadband impacts local economic outcomes. A secondary goal was to gather some insights to leveraging broadband as an economic development asset. This is the only survey that goes directly to the people who work in the trenches daily impacting local economic outcomes. Here is where I separate some of the hype surrounding broadband's power to transform local economies with some reality checks. Some of the findings from this year's survey include: only 11% of economic developers believe broadband's biggest economic benefit to individuals is helping them find jobs; 18% of respondents have insufficient speeds to produce economic outcomes listed and have given up hope for a solution; another 13% do not have enough speed to get the job done, but are actively trying to find or create a solution; 43.5% of respondents' jurisdictions exist under duopoly conditions, 15.5% are in communities that live with a broadband monopoly; about 12% of respondent' say their communities plan to start building broadband networks in the next 18 months, another 22% hope to build a network at some point in the future; 64% of respondents reject convention broadband remedies for urban areas to say "faster speeds, cheaper services" will have the biggest impact on economic development (value of computing centers compromised by crappy infrastructure in poor communities); fiber continues to outshine wireless in terms of expected impact on economic outcomes, with the biggest gap in expectations in the areas of attracting businesses to a community and making local companies more competitive; and 41% - 48% of respondents believe broadband can increase the number of home-based businesses; and significant percentages of respondents say broadband adoption doesn't mean j

The tons of virtual ink that are being used to discuss e-participation, e-democracy, social organizations, enterprise or government 2.0, social media and collaboration seem to assume that everybody is moved by an unstoppable desire to collaborate with others. Vendors, consultants, social media gurus, politicians, communication professionals and amateurs all depict a compelling future where the wisdom of the crowd - be it a project team, a division, a corporation, a cross-section of experts in something, or the population of an entire country - will necessarily replace traditional decision making processes in response to the urge of people of different age, gender, culture, to feel part of something bigger than them. There is an assumption of selflessness as experts donate their time to communities, developers create free applications for everybody to use, communities  replace individuals, and community-building is rewarded more than individual achievements.

The Civic Commons is a new way to bring communities together with conversation and emerging technology. We provide the place and tools for citizens to connect with and inform one another and to take action. It's a bit like a virtual pub or coffee house, where citizens and officials can gather to talk about community issues, brainstorm solutions, coordinate plans --  and maybe even have fun and meet new people along the way.    We take some of our inspiration from Clay Shirky's book, Cognitive Surplus, which explores how communities of people can pool small amounts of their spare time, say 10 minutes a week,  to accomplish great things.  With this in mind, we've constructed our website to enable our community members to leverage their efforts into collective greatness.  Wiki-greatness, if you like.  

(New York, New York, 8 June 2012) - The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) today named Riverside, California, USA as the world's Intelligent Community of the Year 2012 during its annual awards ceremony at Steiner Film Studios in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Riverside, which has appeared among the Top Seven Intelligent Communities for two years in a row, was represented by a delegation led by Mayor Ron Loveridge, as well as the city's CIO Steve Reneker and Assistant City Manager Deanna Lorson. The co-founders of ICF - Louis A. Zacharilla, John G. Jung and Robert A. Bell - presented the award to Riverside, which succeeds Eindhoven, Netherlands, the 2011 recipient. 

Aujourd'hui, dans les musées, les bibliothèques ou le monde scolaire, le modèle d'intégration des technologies de l'information et de la communication est encore trop souvent celui de la résistance. Pourtant, malgré les tentatives d'évitement de toute forme de remise en cause des organisations ou des habitudes, les TIC et les réseaux numériques font tomber une à une les frontières de ces institutions. Cet essai critique porte un regard sans concession sur les mutations des lieux de savoirs. Il analyse toute l'histoire du déploiement des TIC en leur sein depuis une vingtaine d'années, et explique en détail chacune des conditions nécessaires pour que le numérique soit au service du bien commun et de l'accès au savoir pour tous. Il donne à tous les acteurs institutionnels les clés et les informations indispensables pour qu'ils puissent véritablement mettre en place des stratégies de développement et que l'avenir des lieux de savoirs ne soit pas uniquement déterminé par les concepteurs ou promoteurs des technologies. Enfin, il fournit des propositions concrètes sur la manière d'introduire et d'utiliser les TIC pour un apprentissage tout au long de la vie.

"Le secteur canadien des communications poursuit son expansion, selon l'édition 2012 du Rapport de surveillance des communications publiée mardi par le Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes (CRTC). Au dire de ce rapport, les Canadiens ont ainsi consommé davantage de contenu via divers canaux, et la la famille canadienne moyenne a dépensé plus de 180 $ par mois pour les services de communications en 2011."

Over the past three years, cities across the United States have announced ambitious plans to build community and municipal wireless networks.  The phrase 'anytime, anywhere' has had a powerful impact in shaping the way in which debates about these networks have been framed.  However, 'anytime, anywhere', which alludes to convenience, freedom and ubiquity, is of little use in describing the realities of municipal wireless networks, and, more importantly, it ignores the particular local characteristics of communities and the specific practices of users.  This paper examines the media representations and technological affordances of wireless networks as well as incorporating the practices of those that build and use them in an attempt to reframe these debates.

COMMUNICATION INTERACTIVE-1LUBIE « L'interactivité ne se limite pas au Web. Elle est partout où les relations ont de la valeur, partout où il y a un désir de partager et d'avancer. Peu importe le média, nous croyons en la force de l'interactivité pour transmettre votre message. Bienvenue chez Lubie, communication interactive. »

Wondering why some communities have decided to build their own networks, sometimes in competition with massive cable and DSL companies? This video explains why - they want faster, less expensive connections that put community needs first.

And why not? IBM's products are more akin to a fine wine than to a canine commodity. "IBM itself deploys our technologies for our own business purpose," says Schick. "We're a user of Sametime, we're a user of Lotus Notes, we're a user of IBM Connections. We use all of our collaboration technology across the 430,000 employees and another 75,000 contractors that are inside of IBM at any given moment." Schick has been pivotal to IBM's work in social technology for decades. He's been a developer, he's been in the field working with clients, he has run lines of business like enterprise content management, he's the creator of IBM Connections, and now he's in charge of the company's entire collaboration space, including messaging, unified communication and office productivity technologies overall.

"Declaring expansion of broadband Internet access the nation's next great infrastructure challenge, federal regulators on Monday unveiled an ambitious, decade-long strategy to make super high-speed connections available in every corner of the country. The plan by the Federal Communications Commission sets a goal of making sure at least 100 million homes have affordable access to networks that allow them to download data from the Internet at speeds of at least 100 megabits per second - at least 20 times faster than what most people get today. The proposal, which will be sent to Congress, also seeks to put ultra-fast Internet access of 1 gigabit per second in public facilities such as schools, hospitals and government buildings in every community."

In 2001, when the World Economic Forum first published  The Global Information and Technology Report (GITR),  the dot-com bubble had just burst; there were fewer than  20 million mobile phone users in all of Africa; and Apple  Inc.'s product line was confined to Macintosh computers.  That Report presented an optimistic view of the future,  highlighting the transformational potential of information  and communication technologies (ICT) in advancing the  progress of global society and business. In the decade  that followed, Booz & Company has witnessed firsthand  the realization of that potential in its work with clients and  communities worldwide and through its long-standing  involvement with the GITR. Today there are more than  500 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa, and  Apple is the world's largest company in market capitalization, producing iPhones, iPods, and iPads along with  Mac computers. Despite the strides the sector has made  since the technology bust in 2001, however, we believe  we are only just beginning to feel the impact of digitization-the mass adoption by consumers, businesses, and  governments of smart and connected ICT. Success in the digitization world-where competitors from Shenzhen to Schengen can emerge seemingly  overnight-requires policymakers and business leaders  to go back to the drawing board to identify and build  "right-to-win" capabilities in their spheres of influence.  Digitization is more than a matter of access. Our recent  research shows that digitization multiplies the impact of  connectivity, creating substantial incremental value in  terms not only of job creation and economic growth, but  also of societal well-being and government transparency.  Today, more than 70 percent of the world's citizens live in  societies that have just begun their digitization journeys.  As the individuals and enterprises in these societies  continue to progress in developing their own digitiza

The Internet significantly affects OECD economies at different levels and in numerous different / impact areas. In particular the Internet impacts firms in various sectors, individuals and governments. It / also has some observable general macro-economic effects. /  At the firm level, the restructuring of business models in association with use of the Internet has / led to improved efficiencies./ 1/  The impact of the Internet can also be seen in the rapid growth of new firms / founding their businesses on the Internet. The Internet's enhanced communication capabilities are affecting / nearly all sectors of the economy in ways that may be as subtle as making previously hard-to-find data / available online or as profound as transforming an entire market such as is occurring with music, video, / software, books and news.  /  The Internet is reshaping the way individuals live. It brings benefits of higher consumer welfare / (through a larger variety of digital goods and services, lower prices, improved information gathering, more / distribution channels and so forth). In addition, individuals benefit from a more efficient labour market/ 2/ and, on a broader level, from positive impacts on the environment/ 3/  and in education. /  For governments, Internet development enables better communication with citizens, industry and / other organisations. The Internet has also helped governments run more efficiently via improved / information sharing, increased transparency and the automation of various resource-intensive services.  /  The impacts of the Internet on the individual, firm and government level can be also observed at / the aggregated, macroeconomic scale. Existing empirical studies, including ongoing OECD work, suggest / a positive link between increasing Internet adoption and use and economic growth. Even though the / aggregated effects are still preliminary, the relationship between Internet development and economic / growth, as well as microeconomic ev

One could argue that Amazon.com has had more impact on the startup community than nearly any corporate venture capital fund, largely driven through the low-cost services it provides via Amazon Web Services. But the venture capital community wasn't always a fan.

We write to communicate an untenable situation facing the Harvard Library. Many large journal publishers have made the scholarly communication environment fiscally unsustainable and academically restrictive. This situation is exacerbated by efforts of certain publishers (called "providers") to acquire, bundle, and increase the pricing on journals. Harvard's annual cost for journals from these providers now approaches $3.75M. In 2010, the comparable amount accounted for more than 20% of all periodical subscription costs and just under 10% of all collection costs for everything the Library acquires. Some journals cost as much as $40,000 per year, others in the tens of thousands. Prices for online content from two providers have increased by about 145% over the past six years, which far exceeds not only the consumer price index, but also the higher education and the library price indices. These journals therefore claim an ever-increasing share of our overall collection budget. Even though scholarly output continues to grow and publishing can be expensive, profit margins of 35% and more suggest that the prices we must pay do not solely result from an increasing supply of new articles.

The MIT Media Lab is broken down into 26 different research groups. From "Macro Connections" to "Camera Culture," each team is focused on an innovative end goal. Throughout this past year, one group, "Viral Spaces," has focused on proximal networking, hoping to facilitate discourse between real people in real places. From Junkyard Jumbotron's large digital displays to Peddl's brand-new balanced marketplace, here's a look at 11 of the projects aimed at changing the way we communicate.

Waze is a free, community-based traffic & navigation app When you download Waze, you not only get free navigation, but also become part of the local driving community in your area, joining forces with other drivers nearby to outsmart traffic, save time and improve everyone's daily commute. All you have to do is drive, so get involved today!

RuralNet un dispositif innovant au service de la population rurale. RuralNet, un dispositif sociotechnique au service des acteurs du territoire, permet à chacun de s'engager dans une démarche dynamique d'échanges et de partage de savoirs.   A qui s'adresse RuralNet? A  tous les habitants et acteurs du monde rural: -jeunes, élèves, apprenants -séniors, -retraités, -actifs, -public demandeur d'emploi ou souhaitant changer de trajectoire professionnelle, -parents, -élus, décideurs, communautés de communes , pays, -centres de formation, -professionnels, -associations ...   RuralNet : un dispositif de partage et d'entraide. Parce que les habitants des communes rurales sont parfois isolés dans leurs démarches de recherches ou limités dans leur mode de déplacement,RuralNet propose de faciliter l'accès aux savoirs à distance : * En rapprochant des personnes de tous horizons, partageant les mêmes préoccupations, pour former une communauté en ligne de partage et d'entraide. En discutant entre eux sur les forums, les membres de RuralNet peuvent se conseiller, s'encourager, proposer des savoir faire - Si vous souhaitez échanger ou partager votre savoir faire, communiquer avec d'autres ruralnautes , n'hésitez pas inscrivez vous sur le site.  

Plusieurs conférenciers au colloque Printemps des réseaux sociaux des 3 et 4 avril 2012 à Québec n'ont pas manqué de rappeler l'engouement que soulèvent chez nous et ailleurs sur la planète les Facebook, Twitter et autres plateformes communautaires. Pressant les organisations de se faire voir sur ces plateformes - l'internaute d'aujourd'hui est Social Local Mobile, n'est-ce pas?-, les « cracks » des RS n'en conditionnent pas moins la « construction » de cette présence à une réflexion de base en communication: