Research: Example Projects
CCD.net
CCD.net supports professionals working in community cultural development
- http://www.ccd.net/
- CCD.net, Community Cultural Development in Australia
- An online resource for community arts practitioners
- Developed by CAN SA Community Arts Network, Southern Australia
At CCD.net the 'About' section lists the features of the website, and the 'Brief History' under What's CCD? evades the question by prompting the user to get involved.
"So you thought ccd.net was going to provide the definitive history of ccd [community cultural development] in Australia? Too bad... it's up to you." At CCD.net users, typically community arts practitioners, can promote their projects by posting them to a categorised database of CCD projects, they can browse for opportunities and they can share links and resources that may be useful to others working in CCD.
Clearly, CCD net aims to get people involved in this online community, and it promotes participation. In order to maximise the use of the internet in community arts practice we may consider investigating the benefits of such a resource.
Learning from this example
Read the full interview with Bong Ramilo., from the steering committee for CCD.net.
In his interview, he shares his experience of being part of the development of this resource, and promoting the use of it.
"While recognising that there are barriers erected through the technical implementation of ccd.net, I believe that the barriers are not purely technical. One barrier may have to do with the attitude or mindset of some participating organisations regarding valuing a new technology that often gets added to an already long list of "technologies" needed to run an organisation."
Recommendations
From this interview we can derive some recommendations.
- Use open-source technology
- Do not emulate corporate structures or methods
- Work with sympathetic development companies who understand the needs of not-for-profits
- When developing professional resources, consider the amount of time available from the community arts workers.
- To maximise involvement, bring relevant organisations into the process of developing the resource. The desire and interest to participate will be in proportion to the amount of ownership and control the end-users have.