[Cu-wireless] Meeting Times

[Paul King]

Hi Ralph,

Essentially, PrairieNet is a community outreach program run by the
university. Administrative and technical details are mostly handled by
individuals within the LIS program. Their goal is to get as many people in
East Central Illinois online as possible.  I will simply list some of the
bulleted statements from a handout they have:

1. We help individuals get online by providing low cost internet access
and helping low income members of the community get recycled computers and
free online access through the CNI proram.

2. We help seniors and students get online with low cost internet access.

3. We help non-profits and small businesses in East Central Illinois get
their informaiton online and thus available to those who need it through
our information provider accounts.

4. Our webpage helps people find the local resources that they need
through a project called Helpsource which is done in cooperation with
Carle Foundation and Provena Covenant.

...and on and on...

As far as organizational culture goes, I think it would be a very good
fit. Unbeknownst to many, the department is actually very liberal. It 
has some powerful allies (Carle and Provena) and is already recognized as
a web-based community resource.

However, as is usually the case with very large institutions (such as the
University), there are politics. One snag that I already know about
is this. They may not be allowed to compete with existing or potentially
existing industry. As you can see from the points above, they merely fill
in the holes that industry leaves behind. I do not know for certain
whether they operate under this principle, but I know that it is a very
common issue in library work in general.

I will look into these issues this summer if the group is interested.

--paul king




On Tue, 9 Apr 2002, Ralph Johnson wrote:

> I didn't know that LIS ran prairie.net.  I thought that prarie.net was just
> some local community group unafiliated with the university except that a lot
> of its members were part of the university.  Has it always been run by LIS?
> 
> Once we think we understand the technology well enough, we'll be ready to
> start building a system.  But I think that just as important as our
> electronic network will be our social network.  We'll need to have some sort
> of organization.  We'll need to have some rules, which means that there will
> need to be an organization to make and enforce rules.  When people join the
> organization, they will explicitly or implicitly be agreeing to the rules.
> This organization can go and recruit membership from schools, the library,
> and city organizations.  Do you think that prairie.net might be that
> organization?  If it is just an arm of LIS then it probably won't be.  It
> needs to be a separate organization, one that a local citizen or business
> might join.
> 
> Starting an organization is work.  I know how to do it, but I don't enjoy
> it.  It would be great if there were an existing organization ready to take
> over.  But existing organizations have their own cultures and rules.  They
> work a particular way.  It is usually much easier to create a new
> organization with the right culture than to try to change an existing one.
> It might be better to work along with prairie.net than to try to use it as
> the main organization.
> 
> I would appreciate any thoughts you might have about PrairieNet.
> 
> Perhaps we should get together and talk.  I haven't been to any of the
> meetings either, though I have been talking to people on the list for a
> couple of months.  Each Sunday afternoon I look to see whether I can go, but
> I have always had something else to do.  Last week I moved furniture, this
> week we are having guests, the week after that I will probably go out of
> town.  But I want to see the people I've been talking with by e-mail.
> 
> -Ralph
>