Lesson Six

                 

 

Community Service – Citizenship: “Acting Locally, Thinking Globally.”

The local community potential for everyone benefiting from smarter, more generous sharing of our knowledge and goodwill is unlimited. The reality of most Alaskan Native communities, and all rural communities, is that the world is changing around us very rapidly. Once fast Internet becomes available it may be possible to offer online access to jobs and meaningful connections to new worlds of education and opportunity.

As the Scottish Telework video in lesson one demonstrates, young families returned to the villages, the schools are once again overflowing, and the village economies have been revitalized. Installing fast Internet was only part of the success story, the bigger part was providing a “People Oriented Innovative Initiative” providing the targeted education and support necessary to create the desired level of success. 

While the “community networking” movement started in the mid 1980’s, the understanding of how to effectively engage citizens in purposeful online activity that builds community social and economic capacity has been slow to evolve.

Ultimately, it is what people do to support one another that builds community. And while fast Internet and online services can be very powerful, the level of benefits depends on how well people learn to use it, and whether or not they actively choose to do so on a day-to-day basis.

READ: What is Community Networking; And Why You Should Care
                http://www.comtechreview.org/fall-2005/000347.html 
               See also  http://lone-eagles.com/mainstream.htm
               More links at http://lone-eagles.com/community.html and http://lone-eagles.com/smart.htm

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