Sustaining and transforming a community network: The information continuum model and the case of VICNET

Abstract

The paper explores a case in the sustainability of community networks through perspectives both of theory and policy. It introduces the information continuum model (ICM), a teaching and research model developed and used at Monash University since about 1997 . The diagnostic potentialities of the ICM are critically explored by applying them to the case of VICNET, the main community networking agency of Victoria which, after ten years of successful operation, finds itself at a policy and funding crossroads. The model offers a framework for analysing sustainability and transformation. The paper concludes by identifying strategies for VICNETs future, and foreshadowing work required further to develop the ICM as analytical tool in community informatics.