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Background Information
While activity on this project began in early 1998, its initial
development is rooted in activities of several years before. The
US-Russian Friends and Partners team began developing the East Tennessee
based Knoxville-Oak Ridge Regional Network (KORRnet) in 1994 which served
as a basic model for the RCNP. The development of the US-Russian program
continued through discussions in 1995 and a formal proposal to the Ford
Foundation to study the issue of civic networking in Russian communities
and to conduct a proposal solicitation to select communities with which to
develop initial model sites. This proposal was accepted; the six month
planning project conducted in 1997; three cities chosen for participation
in the implementation phase of the project; and a new proposal submitted
to the Ford Foundation in late 1997 for $255,000 to fund the support
office in Moscow for the program and to fund the implementation of the
first three model sites in Chelyabinsk, Samara, and Sergiev Posad. It is
this latter grant for which this final report is submitted describing
activities and results.
Introduction
The primary goal of this first phase of the Russian Civic Networking
Program (RCNP) was to assist in the development of civic networking
projects in three Russian communities with guiding vision and support
provided by the Friends and Partners Foundation in Moscow and with
assistance and transfer of technology and experience from the US Friends
and Partners team at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. An equally
important goal was to disseminate the results of the program so that other
potentially interested communities in Russia (and elsewhere) could benefit
from the experience, technology developed, etc., for their local
communities.
While circumstances forced the time line for project activities to shift
about four months, we believe the project has already achieved a greater
level of success than we had anticipated. The following briefly describes
key results which are described more fully elsewhere in the report.
- All three CIVnets have held their formal "grand opening" ceremonies
and
are now functioning civic networks;
- The project has fully established the technical infrastructure in each
of the three communities for civic networks;
- Each community has established the organizational infrastructure for
developing civic networks and have begun developing specific services for
their communities;
- The Friends and Partners Foundation has been successfully established as
a non-profit, charitable foundation in Moscow and has secured necessary
office space, established a superior technical infrastructure and Internet
access, and placed personnel to provide core support and leadership
functions for the RCNP.
- The Russian Director of the Friends and Partners Foundation has
presented the Russian Civic Networking Program at meetings across the US,
in Europe, and in Russia gaining additional exposure for the program but
also learning more about different civic network models developed in other
parts of the world.
- The Friends and Partners organization (based in Moscow and in Knoxville,
Tennessee) organized, with funding by the Eurasia Foundation, a very
successful two week visit and workshop in the US to enable key
participants from each of the three Russian communities to learn about
successful US civic networks and to begin to work together as an
international US-Russian team for furthering their activities in Russia.
This visit and workshop is described in more detail later in this report
and in the appendix.
- Friends and Partners has also led a successful effort to establish the
first high performance Internet infrastructure between the US and Russia
thereby helping to build a physical infrastructure that will support
continued operation of the US-Russian program for years to come. The
Russian director's involvement in this high performance Internet
initiative has led to involvement in Russian Internet development
generally which holds great possibility for future expansion for the civic
networking program to other communities. Additional information about
the NaukaNet initiative is to be found at the following URLs:
http://www.friends-partners.ru/friends/NaukaNet/ (Russian site)
http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/NaukaNet/ (US site )
- While the initial goal of developing civic networking in three
communities was to take advantage of a wider body of experience and
technical knowledge in developing a single model, the project has actually
led to the development of three models which, while similar in most
respects, present fundamental differences which will make the entire
program's success applicable in a wider base of communities. On this very
key issue, the program has already achieved more success than had been
originally planned.
- Finally, we have devoted a lot of effort during the past year to gaining
the interest of other potential funding organizations in this program.
The implicit goal is to expand this program in the near future to other
communities, but it is also to help other organizations funding Internet
development projects see the value in helping stimulate and develop. The
implicit goal is to expand this program in the near future to other
communities but it is also to help other funding organizations, which have
funded Internet development projects in the past, to see the value in
helping stimulate and develop local community infrastructure by investing
in the appropriate ideals of civic networking, by investing in good
technology, and, most importantly, investing in the right people.
Based on this past year's experience, we believe that the potential of
civic networks to meet real community needs for better local community
communications, cooperation, local governance, and important
infrastructure development is now (with some real experience behind us)
more relevant than we stated in our original proposal.
While we feel confident of the success realized to date with the program,
we are more enthused about the potential to be realized in the coming
months and years.
We want to express our gratitude to the Ford Foundation for supporting
this admittedly experimental initiative and hope to continue the
relationship as we work to build upon and broaden the initiative in the
future.
Civic Networking Defined
Successful civic networks are driven by a broad set of social ideals and
goals - including how modern information and communications technologies
can be used for collective community purposes. The "Assessment and
Evolution of Community Networking," from The Morino Institute, defines
Civic (community) networking as a process, facilitated by the tools of
electronic communications and information, that improves and magnifies
human communication and interaction in a local community by:
- Bringing together people within local communities and focusing their
attention on key issues within the community for debate, deliberation and
resolution.
- Organizing human communication and information relevant to the
communities' needs and problems on a timely basis.
- Requiring, engaging, and involving - on an ongoing basis - the
participation of a broad base of citizens, including community activists,
leaders, sponsors, and service providers.
- Striving to include people in low-income neighborhoods, those with
disabilities or limited mobility, and the struggling middle class.
- Making basic services available at a fair and reasonable cost - or, as
many espouse, at no cost - for broad-based access within the community.
- Most importantly, doing what commercial (Internet service) providers
find difficult to do well: represent local culture, local relevance, local
pride, and a strong sense of community ownership.
The "Bellagio Declaration", from a 1996 meeting in Italy, best summarizes
the need for the creation of a community network (focussing on modern
telecommunications and social change):
- Every voice has the right to be heard and should have the means to be
heard.
- Communications systems and technology must .. be affordable, accessible
to all.
- To work best, communications must allow a flow from many to many, rather
than from one to many.
- Communities must play an essential role in finding their own
communications solutions. [our emphasis]
The Association of Community Networking maintains that community networks
are locally-based, locally-driven information and community systems which
are owned and operated by local citizens, government officials, social
services, schools, libraries, community-based organizations and others.
They enable community members to use the Internet to solve problems and
create opportunities; usually include a World Wide Web page or other
online presence where community members can publish community information,
share interests and communicate with one another; and often provide public
access, training and support for users.
The real issues involved in successful networking depend upon cultural,
education, training and personal initiative issues which can be explored
in the local communities.
Civic Networking in Russia should:
- Facilitate diffusion of information technologies and new communications
media into broader population (to give more people access to current
information and enabling technologies.)
- Help broaden base of citizens involved in infrastructure development and
ensure a "public voice" for broadening ownership and management of
communications networks which can otherwise be made inaccessible. Civic
networks can provide an effective response to inaccessibility of new
technologies due to issues of public assess, existing media dominance, and
industry authority/pricing. It can help speed up infrastructure
development and ensure more reasonable cost.
- Provide new educational opportunities and provide good training ground
for the use of information and communications technologies.
- Through their information servers, they provide "links" to global
educational resources - including libraries, reference resources, distance
education opportunities, etc.
- Civic Networks usually maintain an extensive area for students -
offering links to various educational resources and to local and global
communications areas - such as education-oriented USENET discussion
forums, bulletin board systems, study opportunities, etc.
- They will further community development by encouraging non-governmental
organizers, improving delivery of social services (by improving education
about their need and availability), enhancing "sense of community" and
personal empowerment through improved and expanded communications.
- Provide for new forms of interaction between local citizens and their
government. Through provision of local government information and
services on the network, civic networks can provide a new mechanism for
increasing communications and information exchange between citizens and
between citizens and their government.
The Russian Civic Networking Program is providing useful infrastructure
for many non-governmental organizations active in community development
and civil society building throughout Russia promises the provision of
useful infrastructure for such organizations as the Network for East-West
Women, the Center for Civil Society and many other organizations active in
community development and civil society building throughout Russia.
Proceed to Section
II, Section III
or go back to the Index.
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