The Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) is an international network of researchers, practitioners and policy makers concerned with enabling communities through the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and specifically with research and practice in Community Informatics and community networking or community technology practice.

5th Prato Community Informatics & Development Informatics Conference 2008:

ICTs for Social Inclusion: What is the Reality?

27 OCTOBER-30 OCTOBER 2008, MONASH CENTRE, PRATO ITALY.

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

We are seeking abstracts and proposals from academics, practitioners and PhD students for a conference and workshop event at the Monash University Centre, Prato, Italy (near Florence). The Conference will also include a development informatics stream under the aegis of the International Development Informatics Association as part of its second conference meeting.

The Prato campus is an exceptional environment in which to exchange ideas. We emphasise participatory processes in the conference. The Centre is just off the main piazza of a small Tuscan town. It is close to Italian transport hubs.

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About CIRN

The Network was officially established following the Many Voices, Many Places Colloquium at the Monash Centre, Prato, Italy in September 2003. Currently there are some 200 individuals associated with the Network representing all continents, and more than 50 countries, and with research qualifications in Community Development, Development Studies, Computer Science, Information Science, Social Science, Planning, Management, and Social Administration among others.

Currently there are CIRN networks in Canada, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, the UK and the United States. CIRN is the outcome of several years of informal discussions concerning the need for an international network concerned with a community based approach to the design and implementation of ICTs.

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Community Informatics Workshop, INESC Porto (Portugal) 27-28 November 2007

A hands-on CIRN-affiliated workshop about "Blending theory and practice in Community Informatics", INESC Porto 27 - 28 November.

WHY A COMMUNITY INFORMATICS WORKSHOP?

The goal of the workshop is to produce a seeding text on relevant current and future issues of CI that will impact research and practice in the near future. We would like to work together and develop an in-depth contribution to the field using our multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral perspectives to establish
bridges between theory and practice.

GROUP DOCUMENTATION

It has become something of a 'tradition' to try and document community informatics events as they happen using new online tools (normally a wiki). We have learned that this process needs planning and sufficient allocation of time and we will develop this idea more fully online before the face-to-face event. This documentation will be a combination of blind peer-reviewed articles submitted before the event and the writing we do together at the event.

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Prato Conference 2007: Communities and Action

At the Monash Centre, Prato Italy.

COMMUNITY INFORMATICS--PROSPECTS FOR COMMUNITIES AND ACTION, NOV 5-7 2007

4rd Prato International Community Informatics Conference. CIRN 2007 and the Inaugural International Development Informatics Association Conference 5-7 November 2007, Monash Centre, Prato Italy.

For further information see www.ccnr.net/prato2007 -- more information will become available via the conference website shortly.