Robin Hamman

I am hoping that Robin Hamman will be coming to give a talk later in the term. Robin runs cybersoc.com which is "an online resources for social scientists and internet professionals interested in the study of cyberculture, cyberspace, computer mediated communication and online communities"

Robin currently works as a Community Producer at the BBC and his written several articles on online communities. His most recent is a talk he gave "Global Networks act local" at a conference in Warsaw. He makes the argument that "instead of using the internet to act globally, many users today are more interested in using the internet to make new local connections or to supplement existing communication between themselves and people they are already familiar with"

He refers to the BBC'c "Where I Live" websites as an example of the Internet being used for local information and reinforcing local ties. Another local example would be Manchester Community Information Network (MCIN) of which I am chair. More about MCIN later, but just to observe that it has established 13 local 'community wide webs' in Manchester, based round geographical areas (eg: Cheetham info) or communities of interest (eg: the deaf community gateway)