Magazine

Balancing the Global Through the Local, by Leslie Regan Shade

Public Space

What forms of public space should be available on the Internet? Doheny-Farina is concerned with countering the trend towards virtual immersion by augmenting given geophysical communities through communication technologies to create "a new kind of local public space".

The creation and sustenance of diverse public spaces can allow for a broad range of citizens to participate in the benefits of the evolving information infrastructure, thereby, potentially ameliorating the distinction between the information 'have's and have-not's'. A multiplicity of public spaces can also extend and enhance democratic practices, particularly given the increasing conglomerization of the media by a few large and powerful monopolies.Unless a significant portion of the information infrastructure is allocated for public use, it will be increasingly difficult for alternative voices to be heard, and public space might be corporate space. Doheny-Farina thus promotes the tenets of the community networking movement.

Whither Traditional Communities? | Our Will to Virtuality | Public Space | Community Networking