Web 2.0, Society 1.0Online citizens media, but for which

citizens?

Lou RutiglianoPhD student

Dept. of JournalismUT-Austin

WEB 2.0“The Web is Where We Live” - Newsweek (March 2006)MySpace: 65 million usersCraigslist: 7th most popular site, staff of 19Wikipedia, Flickr, del.icio.us, facebook.....“When people say to me it's a Web 2.0 application, I want to puke” - Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist

WEB 2.0user-generated content

From WIDE – Gather Collective Knowledge, With No Limit To What You Can FitTo NARROW – Find Info That Fits Your Specific Circumstances

Web 2.0 journalism

“Read and write your views, reviews, news, interviews, and more. Pick a story and cover it”

-IBrattleboro

resident-generated contentWhich communities can most benefit from this?Which communities are least involved in this?

Web 2.0 meets the poor: Katrinaused for:-Finding People-Finding Housing-Finding and Providing Services

“Responding quicker than most print or televised media and in considerably more

detail, the Austin Web – once it learned of our role in taking in thousands of hurricane

evacuees – put the information out almost as quickly as it was available.” -Austin Chronicle

http://austinhelpingneworleans.org/http://austinhelpskatrina.org/

Multiple Digital Divides: Beyond Access-Digital Literacy -Time-content“Implied here is a move from thinking about the bare fact of access towards thinking about how that fact connects with the real needs and conditions of those to be connected." - Nick Couldry

Austin Free-Netestablished 1995brought access to Austin public libraries

Austin Free-Networking with 14 partner organizations: provides hardware and service

Austin Free-Netorganizations include senior housing, homeless shelter, community activists, cultural groups

Austin Free-Net-now also involved in education, assistance with community content development-currently studying partner sites' resources, design, goalsResearch Questions:1. what are the information habits of afn's public access site users?2. what are the obstacles to digital inclusion in austin's low-income neighborhoods?3. how do afn's partner sites try to overcome these?

Casa marianella

Casa Marianella

Garden Terrace

Garden Terrace Computer Lab

Conclusions...-current version of access not enough-Links Between Offline and Online-Access and Non-Profits Mutually Beneficial-Need for Education and a Role for Universities

...and a Plan-UT/AFN collaboration-21st Century Community Newsrooms project-Interdisciplinary (kiosk designers wanted)-contact me at rutigliano@mail.utexas.edu