Representatives from the Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI) are slated to participate and present at the 2013 Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) Conference. The topic of the conference, scheduled for October 28-30 in Prato, Italy, will be "Nexus, Confluence, and Difference: Community Archives Meets Community Informatics." CDI is a sponsor of the event.
CIRN is an international network of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers concerned with enabling communities through the use of information and communications technologies and specifically with research and practice in community informatics and community networking.
Martin Wolske, senior research scientist at GSLIS, is a member of the programming committee for CIRN and will lead a workshop titled, "Toward a CIRN Diversity and Inclusion Statement."
"At the 2012 CIRN conference we had many discussions on diversity, privilege, inclusion, and participation," said Wolske. "There was a general agreement that we should strive for diversity in our field of study and practice, that we should foster inclusive participation in our research, and that we should do this in an ethical manner. To achieve this, we need to create a definition of these terms, an assessment of the need, and a statement of priorities and goals. My workshop will help participants create a draft of possible principles and beliefs to be included in an official CIRN Diversity and Inclusion Statement. This work will serve as an informal guide for the community informatics field."
Christine D’Arpa, doctoral candidate in the Information in Society specialization, will discuss her work co-developing and teaching a new course on digital public history, where student work engages the idea of a public and examines issues of community, identity, expression, and representation.
“The international context and focus of the CIRN meeting is not only interesting intellectually, it presents a unique opportunity to delve into some of the conceptual and ethical issues of archival work and community informatics,” said D’Arpa. “I am especially excited to participate in the research meeting at CIRN where we will identify and discuss research projects in which archives, memory, communities, and information technology intersect.”
Jon Gant, research associate professor and CDI director, said the CIRN conference is an important event for GSLIS faculty, staff, and students interested in community informatics.
"This key conference brings together researchers from around the world who are interested in community informatics issues and I'm proud that the Center for Digital Inclusion is a sponsor of the event," said Gant. "It's a great opportunity for us to present our research and interact with other researchers. This conference has an especially significant connection to GSLIS because of our community archiving work and community participation work in managing localized data sets."