7. Social and Civic Participation in a Community Network / Carroll, Rosson, Kavanaugh, Dunlap, Schaffer, Snook and Isenhour

the internet facilitates the participation and involvment in civic and social activities. can the internet enhance involvement and participation in local community? what is the effect of the internet on one's community activism, behavior, orientation and attitude? this research was conducted in one place - in the BEV community, blacksburg. triange methods for getting different perspectives: surveys, interviews and forum discussions. survey sample: 100 households, interviews sample: 20 households. the researchers wanted to follow the onine activity within the households in order to find traces for civic and community involvment. however they could not identify the exact family member since they followed the online activity through a proxy software. they provide an operative definitions for activism, sense of belonging, associations and informedness. they have reached many conclusions, for example: yonger and educated people are more experienced net users; extroverts experience social support and community efficacy; those who use net for civic purposes are more active in community; internet experienced people are using the net for civic purposes, it increses the user's confidence and that may promote the community; non civic internet use proves less activism; experienced net users recruited the net for civic behaviors and tend to be active within their community; experienced net users who use the net for other goals are inactive within the community; experienced net users who use the net for social purposes are less informed compared with those who use the net for civic purposes.