Existing community networks have a broad agenda of using technology to foster social objectives of community cohesion, enhanced education and strong democracy. They are intended to advance social goals such as building community awareness, encouraging involvement in local decision making, or developing economic opportunities in disadvantaged communities [Schuler94]. Given these objectives, the availability and modality of access can be considered a major issue, because only a broad participation to the community network activities can sustain their growth and wealth. However the experience so far demonstrate that the common user base is mainly composed by computer literate, accessing the network because the already have a PC at home or at the workplace. In fact from the technology point of view community networks are based on large bulletin boards and the main user interface is usually PC-based (proprietary application), a Web browser. In this paper we briefly present some ideas from the EU funded project Campiello1. The main point in the Campiello approach is, that the community network access will be broadly extended into the real places through new interface metaphors (paper, large screen displays) and not only be accessible from Home PCs. This greater penetration and connection with real life should support a user base truly representative of the community and possibly open the community to more interactions with external members.    «

Existing community networks have a broad agenda of using technology to foster social objectives of community cohesion, enhanced education and strong democracy. They are intended to advance social goals such as building community awareness, encouraging involvement in local decision making, or developing economic opportunities in disadvantaged communities [Schuler94]. Given these objectives, the availability and modality of access can be considered a major issue, because only a broad participation...    »