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UK Communities
Online developed from a number of
strands:
- Work by
Partnerships
for Tomorrow (P4T)
during 1995 and 1996, funded by BT Community
Affairs, which included the first Communities
Online conference in October 1995.
- The decision to
form an International
Association for Community
Networking,
taken at the Taos, New Mexico conference on
community networking, attended by David Wilcox
of P4T in May 1996.
- Parallel work
at Sheffield University leading to the first UK
community networking conference in July 1996,
which endorsed Communities Online, and the first
Web site about UK
community information networks
- Support from
the BT Laboratories team researching community
networks in holding the first Communities Online
meetings in June and July 1996, and creating
this Web site.
Development by P4T
during 1995 and early 1996 focussed on the idea of
a Community Regeneration Network, intended mainly
for activists and professionals involved in urban
and rural regeneration projects. This was discussed
at the Communities Online conference at BT Centre
in October 1995.
However, during 1996 it became clear that interest
in local community networks was growing, and that
it was possible to find shared interests in three
overlapping areas
- Development of
special interest networks - like community
regeneration
- Local community
networks, often inspired by US
models
- Networking
existing non-profit organisations whose members
would play major roles in both special interest
networks and local networks.
These areas of
interested are reflected in UKCO current
developments.
 Current
developments
September
17 1996
July
24 1996 report
Communities
Online announced
at Sheffield conference July 1996.
Sheffield
conference report by
Peter Mason, Sussex Community Internet Project
June
20 1996 report
IACN
formed at US conference in May 1996.
Communities
Online Conference October 1995
Partnerships
for Tomorrow meeting September
1995
Workshop
at Urban Forum April 1995
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