Leveraging online social networks for people with
disabilities in emergency communications and recovery (John C. Bricout
and Paul M.A. Baker). Int. J. Emergency Management, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2010.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play an important role in leveraging social networks for emergency communications and recovery involving persons with disabilities, provided that proper consideration is given to the strengths and weaknesses of the distributed nature of online resources in relation to the instrumental, psychological and social needs of persons with disabilities in the context of disasters or other emergency events. Emergency and disaster events inherently involve uncertainty and dynamic risk factors, and pose design and implementation challenges for inclusive planning and delivery systems. The involvement of persons with disabilities as key stakeholders throughout the developmental and evaluation process is critical to the effectiveness of online social networks in bridging real-world concerns with virtual resources. An analytical model for understanding the role of distributed networks in mediating the negative impacts of a disaster or an emergency on persons with disabilities is proposed, together with key objectives for change.
Full
paper:IJEM Bricoutbaker.pdf
Communities in the virtual Metropolis
Traditionally communities have been linked to the underlying geography,
so that the identity of a community, for instance a neighborhood in a city, was
linked to an underlying physical place, as part of a legal jurisdiction. A
different kind of community is made possible by the self-identification of
individuals with a common interest, the “virtual community,” made possible by
the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), and the
augmented communication that ICTs can facilitate in a physical community.
Full paper:
"The
Role of Community Information in the Virtual Metropolis: The
Co-Existence of Virtual and Proximate Terrains"
Collaborative Policy Networks (CPN)
A newly completed
working paper by CACP in collaboration with the Wireless and Workplace
Accommodations RERCs, Collaborative Policy Networks addresses
key factors and practices that can be used to develop a set of virtual
interactive tools which support a community of practice focusing on
disability and technology policy. It probes online contexts that can
leverage the research, academic, and advocacy nodes of the disability
community into effectual policy-making. It also provides a brief review
of three distinct bodies of literature: policy networks, online social
networking, and communities of practice.
Full
Working Paper: "Collaborative Policy Networks,”
Online Spiritual Communities
The
increasing use of communication-centric technologies such as the
Internet, offer important opportunities to revisit and re-conceptualize
the operation of communities, especially those in which modes of
communication substitute for geographic proximity. This paper explores
aspects of the construct and interpretation of virtual communities
concentrating on three constituent components of online (virtual)
religious groups.
Full paper: the construct of (virtual) community: interpreting online spiritual communities