What is community informatics?
Kate E Williams, Shameem Ahmed, Noah Lenstra, Qiyuan Liu · Proceedings of the 2012 iConference · 2012
Various definitions of community informatics have been advanced [1, 2, 3], each relatively prescriptive but all centered on the interaction between local, historical community and either information or information technology. The IT revolution continues to unfold and intersect in new ways with local communities, leaving the field in a state of flux. We are carrying out a systematic collection and analysis of the literature in order to obtain an empirical (rather than prescriptive) definition of the field. Moreover, librarians and LIS scholars participated in early "community information systems" work [4, 5], but what role do they play today? To the best of our abilities, we are seeking global rather than country-bounded answers, and we invite others to join us in order to complete this task.