Michael Gurstein
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Dr. Michael Gurstein is currently the Exectuive Director of the Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training in Vancouver Canada; a Director of The Information Society Institute, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town South Africa; an Honorary Professor at Central Queensland University in Australia, a Fellow of the Center for Community Networking, Monash University; and an Honorary Fellow of the Claremont Information Technology Insititute, Claremont Graduate University, and President of Michael Gurstein and Associates, Vancouver, Canada. In 2006 he was selected to be on the United Nation's Global Alliance for Information, Communications, and Technology and Development[1] High Level Panel of Advisors[2].
A Canadian, Dr. Gurstein completed a B.A. at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge and was a senior public servant in the provinces of British Columbia and Saskatchewan. From 1992 to 1995 he was a Management Advisor with the United Nations Secretariat in New York. Prior to this Dr. Gurstein was the President of Socioscope Inc. a management consulting firm based in Ottawa which specialized in policy and program analysis and evaluation.
From 1995 to 1999 Dr. Gurstein was the NSERC/SSHRC Associate Chair in the Management of Technological Change and Director of the Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking at the University College of Cape Breton in Sydney, Nova Scotia. In the latter post he pioneered in sustainable community based technology applications. Based on this work Dr. Gurstein has advised and consulted with a number of UN agencies, and Departments and agencies of the Canadian, US, and Australian governments.
His book "Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies: (Idea Group, 2000) provided a focal point for the emergence of Community Informatics as the research and praxis discipline underpinning the social appropriation of ICT.
Dr. Gurstein has served on the Board of the Vancouver Community Network, the British Columbia Community Networking Association, Telecommunities Canada, and is currently on the Steering Committee of the Telecentres of the Americas Partnership.
In late 2002, Dr. Gurstein was awarded a substantial grant from the Ford Foundation to support his research work in the area of Community Informatics in addition to research grants from the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canadian Researach Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking -- CRACIN [3]) and the US National Science Foundation. He has lectured or taught at among others Harvard University, the University of California Los Angeles, University of Michigan, Rensellaer Politechnical Institute, the University of Milan, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Toronto and taught at the University College of Cape Breton, the Technical University of British Columbia where he was "Team Leader" (Dean) of Management, and as Visiting and Clinical Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
He is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Community Informatics [4] and a key member of Community Informatics Research Network [5] and moderates the Community Informatics [6] and Community Informatics Researchers [7] elists.
[edit] Principal Publications
Gurstein M., Tischenko V. (Eds.) Community Informatics and Community Networking Textbook. Prospects. Approaches. Instruments. Russian National Academy of Sciences 2004 (English and Russian).
Gurstein M., and Civille, R., Towards a Citizen’s Technology: Final Report to the Ford Foundation on a Sector Analysis of the Community Informatics Systems Sector, 2004.
Gurstein M., Menou M., and Stafeev S., (Eds.) Community Networking and Community Informatics: Prospects, Approaches and Instruments. Part 1: Global Experience St. Petersburg, CCNS, 2003 (English and Russian)
Gurstein, M. (Ed.) Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey PA, 2000
Gurstein, M., Burying Coal: An Experiment in Community Research Using Information and Communications Technology for Local Economic Development, Collective Press, Vancouver BC, 2000.
“E-Governance and E-Government”, for International Conference on Engaging Communities, Brisbane, Australia (With Wallace Taylor and Don Schauder); July 2005
“Why Community Information Systems Are Important to the Future of Management Information Systems and The Field of Information Science (IS)” with Tom Horan, for The Gordon Davis Series on the Future of Information Systems Academic Discipline: Opportunities and Directions, 2005
“Communities: The Hidden Dimension of ICTs”, Issue paper 7, Communication Rights for an Information Society, (Policy Paper for Civil Society Representation at the World Summit on the Information Society) 2003
“Effective Use: A Community Informatics Strategy Beyond the Digital Divide”, First Monday, December 2003. [8] (translated into Russian and Spanish)
“A Community Innovation System: Research and Development in a Remote and Rural Community”, in D. Wolfe and A. Holbrook (Eds.), Knowledge, Clusters and Regional Innovation Systems, Queen’s-McGill University Press, 2002.
“Community Informatics, Community Networks and Strategies for Flexible Networking” in Community Informatics: A Social Agenda for Technology, Brian Loader and Leigh Keeble (Eds.) Routledge, London, 2001.
" Fiddlers on the Wire: Music, Electronic Commerce and Local Economic Development on a Virtual Cape Breton Island", in Doing Business on the Internet: Opportunities and Pitfalls, Celia T. Romm and Fay Sudweeks (Eds.), Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1999.
"Flexible Networking, Information and Communications Technology and Local Economic Development", First Monday, Feb. 1999 [9].
