Catherine+Arden

=Catherine Arden=
 * Australia**
 * University of Southern Queensland**
 * Contact:** ardenc@usq.edu.au

The Community Informatics project that I am involved in is called GraniteNet. The //GraniteNet Project// commenced in 2006 as a CI research and development collaboration between the University of Southern Queensland and community members from the small, rural town of Stanthorpe, in Queensland, Australia. The project's vision was "the development of a sustainable, community owned, designed and managed web portal that will support Stanthorpe's development as a learning community". Almost six years on, with the project haviing moved through three phases of participatory action research and evaluation, the GraniteNet web portal is a reality, and GraniteNet Inc is a vibrant - and very broke - community-based digital inclusion social enterprise currently operating solely through the support of community volunteers who administer the website and deliver digital inclusion services to other members of the Stanthorpe community from the GraniteNet premises located in the CBD. What happens from here on is, of course, anyone's guess...anyway, check it out for yourself at [|www.granitenet.com.au].

I'm indebted to the efforts of the organisers of the Prato CI conferences for providing valuable opportunities for sharing of knowledge and experience and exploration of ideas with the members of the broader CI research/practice community. My doctoral study is an investigation into the nature of learning in the context of GraniteNet. As an adult educator, I am keen to explore the ways in which significant and valuable learning is 'enacted' in GraniteNet, and to explore the various ways in which GraniteNet community members themselves conceptualise, experience and articulate their own learning.