Thursday, 29 April 2004

Email and the neighbourhood

We're all going to have to wait a while for Keith Hampton's definitive report on the e-neighbors project in Boston. But his presentations in London and Oxford this week (which also covered the Netville study and some unfolding work on network awareness) have given some insight into the implications of providing unsupported low-bandwidth online facilities for neighbourhoods. hampton_gale_benioff_halpern Here are some key points. The project worked in four neighbourhoods in Boston: an apartment block, a gated community (apparently with the gate missing but with all the other manifestations of segregation), and two middle class suburban localities. After just one year of using the neighbourhood email list, and with statistical controls applied, it appears that:

46% reported an increased 'sense of community'
13% reported an increased sense of neighbourhood safety
40% felt there was an increased ability of the neighbourhood to react to an important issue or emergency
There was a 29% increase in neighbourhood involvement.
Hampton stresses the significance of having low numbers in an online environment. "There seems to be an optimal size beyond which any group tends to fissure, based on differences of opinion." Around 200 households seems to be large enough to stimulate sufficient traffic and to stifle possible aggression and confrontation because of 'real-world' awareness of others.
And one observation Keith made, which I propose to probe a little: if I heard it right, information about neighbours gleaned via email had a more significant effect than information about them gleaned by observation. We have much more to learn.

The image shows Keith Hampton, Toby Gale (CDF Associate), Sarah Benioff (CDF), and David Halpern (Cabinet Office) at a Home Office meeting this week. Thanks are due to Duncan Prime at the Civil Renewal Unit for supporting Hampton's visit. Government is paying attention, but (apart from the interest of the Oxford Internet Institute) where were the academics?

29 Apr 2004 08:46:11 | Neighbourhood relations, Social capital

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Come to New Orleans!

Posted by: [email protected] | Saturday, 03 May 2014 at 06:04

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