Michael Gurstein
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Dr. Michael Gurstein (born 1944, Edmonton, Canada) is best known for his work in the development and definition of community informatics as the area of research and practice concerned with enabling and empowering communities through the use of Information and Communications Technology.
Gurstein holds a PhD in Social Science from Cambridge University. His book Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies (Idea Group, 2000) was the first major publication in the area and introduced the term "Community Informatics" into wider usage as referring to the research and praxis discipline underpinning the social appropriation of ICT. Within the area of Community Informatics a major contribution has been the introduction of the notion of "effective use" as a critical analytical framework for assessing technology implementation superseding approaches based on the more commonly accepted frameworks such as that of the "Digital Divide".
He is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Community Informatics [1], was Foundation Chair of the Community Informatics Research Network [2] and moderates the Community Informatics [3] and Community Informatics Researchers [4] elists. He is currently the Executive Director of the Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training [5], in Vancouver Canada, Research Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey, Research Professor at the University of Quebec (Outaouais) ) and a Director of The Information Society Institute, Cape Town South Africa. He is also a member of the High Level Panel of Advisers of the UN's Global Alliance for ICT and Development. [6]
[edit] Principal Publications
- Gurstein, M. What is Community Informatics (and Why Does It Matter)?. POLIMETRICA, 2007 [7]
- Gurstein, M. (Ed.) Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey PA, 2000
- “Effective Use: A Community Informatics Strategy Beyond the Digital Divide”, First Monday, December 2003. [8] (translated into Russian and Spanish)
- "Flexible Networking, Information and Communications Technology and Local Economic Development", First Monday, Feb. 1999 [9].
- Gurstein M., and Civille, R., Towards a Citizen’s Technology: Final Report to the Ford Foundation on a Sector Analysis of the Community Informatics Systems Sector, 2004.
- Gurstein M., Menou M., and Stafeev S., (Eds.) Community Networking and Community Informatics: Prospects, Approaches and Instruments. Part 1: Global Experience St. Petersburg, CCNS, 2003 (English and Russian)
