From rural life to virtual community? Presentation for i2TIC meeting

The rural Catalan communities facing the Information and Knowledge Society new

scenario, the case of ‘La Conca de Barberà’.

ICT4RD@ricardespelt

i2TIC | IN3 – UOC 18 | 07 | 2012

From rural life to virtual community?

ICT4RD | Ricard Espelt

+ strength + expansion


From rural life to virtual community

Rheingold, R. (1993) “Virtual communities”, Reading MA: Addison-Wesley (p.5)

Rheingold

resilience

Bateman & Lyon



Socializing forms+

Quick and direct interaction spaces

Feenberg&Bakardjieva

From rural life to virtual communityICT4RD | Ricard Espelt

Feenberg,A.&Bakardjieva,M. (2004). Virtual Community: No'Killer Implication. New Media&Society

Woolgar


New socializing forms+

Specifying reality and virtuality Woolgar, S. (2002) Sociedad virtual? Tecnología, "cibérbole", realidad. UOC Ed., Barcelona.


Preece


Interaction among community members thanks to technology platforms

Preece, J. (2000) Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability


Porter


Integration between online and offline activity


Porter, M. (2001) Strategy and the Internet Harvard Business Review, Vol.79.

Wellman


Getting over traditional geographic gaps


Wellman, B.; Qaun-Haase, A.; Boase, J.; Chen, W. ;Hampton, K.; Isla de Díaz,I. & Miyata, K.(2003) The Social Affordances of the Internet for Networked Individualism. Journal of computer Mediated Communication , Vol. 8 (3).

Hine


ICT significance: Before its use vs. the moment of application


Hine, C. (2002) Etnografía virtual (2000) Traducció Ed. UOC, 2004.

Relation between producer and community consumers through launched product


Product relations around offline and online consumer community


Possible values in the relation between ITC and product


(1) (2)

TIC scheme to structure a producer community to be launched online (1)TIC scheme to structure an online consumer community (2)


3 out of 4 Using ICT

ICT - Scale of Use

Email (94%)

Website (77%)

Social Networks (46%)

E-Commerce (20%)

ICT4RD | Ricard EspeltConca de Barberà ICT4RD Results

Website Languages

Catalan (96%)

Spanish (78%)

English (63%)

French (7%)


E-Commerce Use

before 2010 (43%) | after 2010 (57%)

Reasons for E-commerce

More Information about Product (70%)

Enlarging Sales (45%)

Increasing Reputation (35%)

Customer Satisfaction (25%)


ICT can increase consumers

Yes (63%) | No (11%) | Don’t know (26%)

ICT and consumer collaboration help to explore

new product lines or markets

Yes (37%) | No (32%) | Don’t know (31%)


ICT reduces marketing costs

Yes (40%) | No (34%) | NS (26%)

ICT changes marketing process

Yes (34%) | No (34%) | NS (32%)

ICT improves innovation around the product

Yes (43%) | No (26%) | NS (31%)


Website improves product information Yes (85%) | No (8%) | NS (7%)

Social networks improve product information Yes (75%) | No (25%)

Presence on Social Networks Yes (49%) | No (51%)

Social networks based on usageFacebook (40%) | Twitter (11%) | YouTube (6%)

Interaction on Social NetworksYes (44%) | No (56%)


Findings Summary:

• Horizontal participation processes. • Transition from email to social networking. • Embryonic stage. • Faster use by individual farmers than rural communities. • Intermediary role Leadership still on. • Competitive advantages for small producers in particular. (Flexibility and

low cost). • Best examples - Adding producer family members. • More economic efforts in new media than traditional in ones. • New conception between rural and urban world: more proximity.• Beating geographical gaps. • Non Indicator Use.

Conca de Barberà ICT4RD Results


4 lines to explore: Health + Learning + Disintermediation + Cooperation


Increasing people interest for the products they consume. (My Farm)

+ info


http://ict4rd.net/2012/04/13/some-key-points-about-collaboration-to-produce-and-commercialize-food-in-community/

Linking production and learning(Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society)

+ info



Linking consumers and selers(Farmbook)

+ info



Controling Business(The People’s Supermarket)

+ info



More interesting concepts to evaluate:

• Social farming (l’Olivera / La Fageda)• More dialogue and less seduction (Outlook 2012 - Creafutur)

• Crowdmarketing / Crowdcreation – La Catània• Crowdcuration• Crowdbuying

• Transition Towns Network • Open Source Ecology • JAK Medlemsbank / Coop57


http://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/articulos/20120507/54289637667/antoni-puigverd-luces-en-el-tunel-social-flaming.html

http://www.creafutur.com/es/estudios/outlook2012

http://ict4rd.net/theplateishot/lang/ca/la-catania-de-vilafranca-a-la-virtualitat/

http://ict4rd.net/2011/11/18/transition-in-community/

http://blog.opensourceecology.org/2012/04/extreme-manufacturing/

http://ict4rd.net/2012/01/04/speaking-with-nuria-albet-about-jak-medlemsbank/

ICT4RD – La Conca de BarberàICT4RD Blog

ICT4RD@ricardespelt

i2TIC | IN3 – UOC 18 | 07 | 2012


http://ict4rd.net/2011/10/16/ict4rd-la-conca-de-barbera-full-document/



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From rural life to virtual community? Presentation for i2TIC meeting