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Congratulations to the New CII Fellows!

The Community Informatics Initiative is pleased to introduce the 2008-09 CII Fellows and their projects.

A new Call for Proposals will be available on this site in Fall 2008.

CII Fellow

Jon Gant, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science

Professor Gant received $27,000 from a combination of grant money (through the Institute of Museum and Library Services) and GSLIS matching funds to cover the costs of his research project and curriculum development, including hiring graduate assistants and purchasing lab materials.

Gant's research is concerned with evaluating how GIS technology can improve participation in community-level decision-making, finding out how to encourage community members to participate in creating and sharing knowledge using GIS tools, studying the development of folksonomies (user-generated search terms) in these settings and analyzing the structure of community members relationships.

In addition to this project, Gant will begin offering two courses related to his research this fall. Geographic Information Systems (LIS490GI), co-taught with Dr. Charles Linville, will show students how to apply GIS technology to help identify problems in communities and find management and public policy solutions to those problems. Students will learn how to use GIS software in a lab setting and apply their knowledge in a service learning project that will require them to address a community issue or problem. Strategic Information Management (LIS590ST) focuses on teaching students how to manage information as a strategic asset of community- and service-based organizations, including libraries and museums. Students will learn methods for developing information system strategies for communities and community organizations that reflect community values.

The funding for the following fellows comes from the Provost’s Office of the University of Illinois, through the auspices of the Illinois Informatics Institute. These seed grants were awarded in April of 2008. Each Fellow will present their work in the CII Speaker Series during 2008-09.

CII Research Fellows

Christopher Fennell, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Project title: "Civic Engagement among Local and Descendant Communities of New Philadelphia, Illinois"

This project addresses the heritage of New Philadelphia, Illinois, the earliest town planned and legally founded by an African American in the United States. Local and descendant communities have been working together to promote broad research and discussion of its remarkable history and the related histories of African-American struggles for freedom. This project will facilitate even greater interaction and exchange among the members of these communities by providing interactive, centralized internet resources for their use.

 

Stacy Harwood, Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Project title: “Connecting Low-Capacity Communities to the Brownfields Marketplace”

Community development organizations play a critical role in transforming derelict properties into neighborhood assets. The goal of this proposed project is to accelerate the implementation and transfer of a technology-based economic development tool designed to open up new marketing possibilities for distressed neighborhoods in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is an effort to help community-based organizations turn vacant and/or abandoned properties into viable development projects by enabling them to gather the pertinent information needed to persuasively market the properties to urban developers. The East St. Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP) at the University of Illinois will partner with St. Louis University and Regionwise to develop and implement the tool.


Sara McLafferty, Professor, Bruce Rhoads, Professor, and Miriam Cope, Ph.D. student, Department of Geography
Project title: “Participatory GIS in the Upper Sangamon Watershed: Geovisualization, Collective Decision-Making and Environmental Governance”

In rural areas, changes in crop production linked to biofuels are raising important concerns about issues like water contamination, runoff and land use change. We develop a participatory geographic information system (PGIS) for enhancing agricultural and environmental management in the Upper Sangamon River watershed in the context of increased biofuels production. Working with the Agricultural Watershed Institute based in Decatur IL, we investigate the role of PGIS in fostering collective action around watershed-based environmental issues and examine how stakeholders' interactions with the PGIS are influenced by their cultural and contextual backgrounds.

Michelle Wander, Associate Professor, and Laura Witzling, M.S. Student, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
Project title: “Using information technology to address soil quality in Chicago community gardens”Chicago has more than 50 urban agricultural projects, many of which provide food for city-dwellers. Field research and e-learning efforts will focus on service to underserved communities and lead pollution. Educators and gardeners will participate in actual and virtual trainings designed to improve gardener's science literacy and access to technical resources.

Ruth Nicole Brown, Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies & Gender & Women's Studies
Planning grant for Project: “Not What They Said but How They Said It: The Political Courage of Black Girls and Women in Their Everyday Experiences”
The experiences of Black girls and women and how they talk about them are acts of political courage. This project investigates how cross-cutting responses to consensus and contentious issues can be just as significant to democratic life as those that support the status quo. The following question guides this analysis of Black girls and women’s political courage: How are dissident practices of Black women and girls sanctioned and punished in educational processes that do not value their critical and active participation? Beyond contributing to academic theories of civic engagement and democratic participation, research findings will articulate the significance of “Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths” (SOLHOT), a collaborative project between the university and community that exemplifies principles and practices of a self-affirming and critically engaged educational experience.


CII Teaching Fellow

John Kindt, Professor, Department of Business Administration
Project title: “Curriculum Development in Community Informatics and Social Entrepreneurship”

The CII provided partial support for incorporating new informatics lectures and materials into select sections of Business Administration 300, “The Legal Environment of Business” (with an emphasis on informatics & entrepreneurship). The new course materials specifically teach informatics methodologies as they pertain to governmental and business processes. Relevant and current source materials are tied to topics usually selected by students. Practical informatics mechanisms to maximize the efficiency and implementation of information technology in local communities will also be addressed.