Robin Duple Talks on Connecting People to Change the World
In my Community Informatics class last week, we spoke in passing about the fact that many people in the 21st century see themselves solely as individuals, largely not responsible for or impacted by the rest of society. In many ways, I feel that this is a widely-held conception. As strangers, we pass each other wordlessly on the street. We sit silently next to one another on the bus, not even acknowledging each others’ presence. If all of the tables at a café are full, we often take our food with us rather than ask a stranger if we can share his or her table.
So where does Community Informatics come into this? I think what I like best about CI is that we strive to connect people. We believe that community members can and should help one another and also that communities can help other communities. We encourage partnerships, education, technology, dialogue, and (most importantly) action.
On September 14, Elaine Hicks, a fellow Community Informatics Initiative GA, gave a practice talk for her upcoming presentation at the annual meeting of the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association. The talk was an opportunity to gain constructive feedback on the presentation, the purpose of which is to encourage health services librarians to take advantage of opportunities to create partnerships with local public health workers, thereby enriching both sides of the profession with the increased dialogue between those with similar professional interests but different skill sets.
Then, on September 16, I attended a presentation by Ann Abbott (as part of the CII Research Series) on her Spanish Service Learning program that utilizes social media. This program takes those students who are learning or improving their Spanish skills and who need communicative practice in real-world settings and brings them together with social service agencies who serve the Latino community but may not have adequate staffing of Spanish-speakers. Thus, both students and social services providers benefit from the exchange, as well as the Latino community. By using Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and various other social media to contact students about immediate needs for interpreters, make training videos for future students, and share experiences, they provide a much-needed service (in an innovative way) while fostering education.
Rather than accept the disconnect between public health workers and health services librarians, Elaine decided she wanted to do something about that. Instead of lamenting the lack of Spanish immersion opportunities in the U.S. for Spanish majors who can’t study abroad, Ann created her own means of mini-immersion. At CI, we try to identify things the community needs and work to satisfy those needs by empowering the community.
Isn’t CI great? There’s something interesting to reflect on almost everyday!