[WEB4LIB] Virtual Communities and their management

[Matt]

Chistopher, All,

You might be interested in the Indiana Digital County Network.
http://www.indico.net I finished development on it in March of this year.  It is
a comprehensive subject classification system for all institutions and
organizations on a county by county level. (92 in all)  It was highlighted in
Government Technology magazine in August 1998  in their monthly 50 state review.

There are over 30 self sustaining community nets in Indiana. Some counties have
more than one.  This initiative was created to encourage the participation from
the remaining counties toward ownership by or within the county.   Most of the
remaining counties are rural, however several rural counties already have very
strong web presences. The Government and Education sections in all 92 counties
more populated with URL's than other sections.  Other more locally specific data
is best integrated localy than by the State.

Be sure to check to vision statement more on strategy.  It was written in
conjunction and resources were shared with the http://www.n2.net Net at Two
Rivers. (an 18 county region in Nortern California and Nevada)

Note the 92 courthouse photos.  They were taken by a IU Journalism Prof Emeritas
who happened to have a coffetable book out of print.  We scanned the slides to
Kodak Photo CD.  He was a Pulitzer Proze nominee in 1948 for the Little Rock
Integration.

All the best,

-Matt

RUMBAUGH Christopher D wrote:

> I'm working on a graduate school paper on Virtual Communities and their
> management, with implications for libraries.
>
> I'm particularly interested in doing a sort of "country study" in this regard
> related to Finland.  I have located information and done some exploration of
> "Virtual Helsinki" and their attempt to merge many online aspects (photo
> archive, ecommerce, etc.) into this city wide virtual community.  Also I've
> seen a bit on work in the Oulu area as well.
>
> Any sources of info/research of this kind would be of interest, particularly
> from non library science literature.
>
> I'd be happy to forward my findings to the list when I'm finished (if anyone
> cares!)
>
> TIA
> ____________________________________
> Christopher D. Rumbaugh
> Oregon State Library
> LSTA / State Data Coordinator
> (503) 378-2112 x254
> <christopher.d.rumbaugh at state.or.us>
> ____________________________________

--
Matt Theobald
Information Specialist
Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System
See http://www.ihets.org
Ring 317.263.8919