Face-to-Face v. Wired: community life @Meadowmont and Meadowmont.org

± precedents

"These examples are not offered as evidence that electronic utopia . . . is around the corner, but as a small sample of the large number of active experiments that are still going on." -- Howard Rheingold (p. 370)

My question: What about wireless?

Celebration, Orlando, Fla.:
Long a dream of founder Walt Disney, a development based on five principles:
health, education, technology, community, and place.

Celebration was designed to be a town of about 20,000 with a world-class school, teaching academy, innovative architectural design, and an advanced electronic infrastructure for all the homes and businesses.

Residents have not used the community network very much. Why? Public access points not that accessible. Homeowners not heavy users. Electronic tools less important since the physical design of Celebration and the newcomer's expectations about community and neighborly interaction perhaps made online networking redundant and unnecessary.

Interesting: Rumors common in Celebration because there was no newspaper until early in 1999 and only a Celebration Company newsletter.

Blacksburg Electronic Village:
BEV (Blacksburg Electronic Village) sprung from a public-private alliance joining Bell Atlantic of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the Town of Blacksburg. First announced in January 1992, BEV deployed in the Fall 1993 and rapidly became a part of everyday life in Blacksburg, according to A Brief History. BEV's hallmarks are a community-service orientation, a whole-community approach (it "belongs" to the people of Blacksburg), and a network-based infrastructure (v. a host-based system). By Spring 1995, more than 40% of Blacksburg residents were using the Internet; by Fall 1997, it was more than 80% to lead the world.

Netville, Toronto:
In suburban Toronto, "Netville" is one of the world's first residential developments to have ben equipped with a broadband local network. The neighborhood was built from the ground up with a 10Mbs high-speed computer network supplied and operated free of charge by a consortium of private and public companies. The network provided Internet access, videophone, online jukebox, online health services, local discussion forums, and entertainment and educational applications.

Wellman and Hampton: "Living in a wired neighborhood with access to a high-speed local network encourages greater community involvement, expands and strengthens local relationships with neighbors and family, and helps maintain ties with friends and relatives living farther away."

The Range, Melbourne, Australia (Williamstown):
At Williams Bay, Williamstown, in Melbourne, in a project called The Range (confused yet?), the developer -- Stonehenge Group -- is attempting to develop and nurture "community" with a community-wide intranet. Stonehenge contracted Resident Interactive, Meadowmont's vendor, for its intranet. Like Meadowmont, The Range offers ubiquitous broadband connection and a branded community "portal."

From the University of Melbourne research group: "Although the relationship between community and digital communications is both romanticised and highly contested, te developers clearly see the technology in terms of building on the inherent and traditional merits of community, and in terms of reversing alienation, isolation, and other symptoms of a perceived decline of community. The interplay of the corporeal and the electronic in the construction of community will be fascinating and important to observe."
for more

Seattle Community Network:
From the site: "The Seattle Community Network (SCN) is a free public-access computer network for exchanging and accessing information. Beyond that, however, it is a service conceived for community empowerment. Our principles are a series of commitments to help guide the ongoing development and management of the system for both the organizers and participating individuals and organizations."

Site started on July 28, 1995 as the Seattle Community Network Association, a separate non-profit organization to take up the work started by the SCN project of the Seattle chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). For a "brief, informal history"

ResidentInteractive customers include Vista Lakes and Lake Nona Estates, in Orlando, FL, Sugarloaf Country Club and St. Marlo Country Club in Atlanta, GA, Ballantyne Country Club and The Pointe in Charlotte, NC, The Cliffs in Traveler's Rest, SC, Bell Canyon in Los Angeles, CA, and Brambleton in Loudon County, VA. The Range, in Melbourne, Australia, is the company's international customer.

 

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