Talk:Community Memory

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CM's users typed on an ASR-33. ASR-33s weren't noisy. Model 28s were noisy. Almost as noisy as Model 19s.

Located right by the door to a record store, noise was an issue. szpak 01:28, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Edits and Additionals to Article

The following information has been added to the article, based on additional references: Individuals could place messages in the computer and then look through the memory for a specific notice.

...by providing unmediated, two-way access to message databases through public computer terminals.

Anonymity was possible with Community Memory because users are not required to share their names or register to use the system. All of the information on the system is community generated, which has two implications. Firstly, there was no central authority of any kind that establishes what information is available in the system. The second implication is that information is not imported from other sites.

Community Memory was conceived as a tool to help strengthen the Berkeley community. Their brochure states that "strong, free, non-hierarchical channels of communication--whether by computer and modem, pen and ink, telephone, or face-to-face--are the front line of reclaiming and revitalizing our communities."

The above points were found in: Schuler, D. (1994). Community networks: Building a new participatory medium. Communications of the ACM, 37(1), 38.

The following additions were made, based on previous sources cited in the existing article: This was the first time individuals who were not studying a scientific subject had the opportunity to be able to use a computer [4].

Brief instructions were mounted above the modified keyboard showing how to send a message to the mainframe, how to attach keywords to it to make it searchable and how to search those keywords to find messages from others [5]

This group of computer savvy friends and partners wanted to create a simple system that could function as a source of community information[2] Knowledgeagent33 (talk) 15:36, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

An additional edit under people is as follows: The creators and founders of Community Memory shared the values of northern California counter-culture of the 1960s, which included the celebration of free speech and the anti-war movement. They also supporters ecological, low cost, decentralized, and user-friendly technology Ref: Bell, D., Loader, B., Pleace, N., & Schuler, D. (2004). Cyberculture: The key concepts. New York: NY, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.Knowledgeagent33 (talk) 16:26, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

The reason I added the above information is because it will enrich the article and provide an additional reference for those interested in accessing information about Community Memory. Unfortunately, much of the literature focuses on community memory as a sociological perspective from which researchers gather information for ethnographic study. The Computer Memory Project could be considered a type of ethnographical approach to research, as it encompasses the community and was developed to strengthen community ties. Knowledgeagent33 (talk) 16:01, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

In addition to Knowledgeagent33's edits, I contributed the following information:

In its approach, Community Memory adopted a creative method to funding the project. They provided users with coin-operated terminals which could be read without charge; however, in order to post an opinion, users were required to pay twenty-five cents or one dollar to start a new forum [9]. This is significant because there was no prior mention of funding (with the exception of "low costs") or prices for use of Community Memory terminals located in a variety of places like libraries and laundromats. By using an inflation calculator, it suggests that the relative buying power of one dollar in 1973 could cost users in 2011, approximately five dollars+ just to start a new forum with a different topic. It would be interesting to expand on this sentence and the funding of Berkeley's Community Memory Project.

Furthermore, upon seeking information on the founders of Community Memory, I came across Roy Rosenzweig's “Wizards, Bureaucrats, Warriors, and Hackers: Writing the History of the Internet” journal review. He cites Steven Levy's work, and adds insight into the founders backgrounds and their relations to the internet and mentions the (already noted by wikipedians) Homebrew Computer Club. The link to this article is now accessible under the external links.

The following three quotations have been taken from Colstad and Lipkin's publication on Community Memory: Colstad, Ken and Efrem Lipkin. “Community Memory: A Public Information Network” ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society Volume 6 Issue 4, Winter 1975, pp 7. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=958788

The first discusses the steps to using a CM system which provides a little more details in operating the software provided by the principal founders: "To use a Community Memory terminal, the user would type the command ADD, followed by the text of the item, and then by any keywords under which he/she desired the item to be indexed. To search for an item, the user would type the command FIND followed by a logical structure of keywords connected with AND's, OR's and NOT's". While a previous wiki author has used the Berkeley records store as an example for users coming together, I added additional examples of the Berkeley community organizing themselves via the CM terminal: "In other terminal locations, users sought out complete strangers to assemble car pools, organize study groups, find chess partners, or even pass tips on good restaurants." And lastly, I included a small note on the rate of users and the system's capabilities, truly illustrating the benefits of such a system. "According to Colstad and Lipkin, the rate of use of the system was fairly high and constant in relation to the environment of the terminals. About fifty searches and ten additions occurred each day at each location. Given the length of individual sessions with the system this was at least one-third the maximum capacity of a terminal."

I found this wiki article illustrated the sparsity of information on this specific topic, and the depths wikipedians must go to in order to substantially contribute to such an example. Uotgreer (talk) 23:41, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

Questions

I have a question about the coin operated CM machine. Was the need for payment required when the machine was first developed? Or was it after the founders of CM moved onto other projects? I thought I had read payment was required after the founders of CM moved onto other projects.Knowledgeagent33 (talk) 20:17, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your question Knowledgeagent33, the source I used for this citation was Schuler's article "Community Networks" and you concern suggests this may prove to be a contested statement. In the paragraph Schuler writes that the brochure stated it was "strong, free...etc" however I think this is in regards to "free" access and "free" subjects... and further down the article, Schuler mentions the charge for "commenting" on a topic or starting a new forum. I have not been able to find any other information that either supports or denounces the statement. Maybe other Wikipedians can weigh in on this? Do you have a reference to the article where you read it was free? I hope we can work this out together!Uotgreer (talk) 02:08, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

I found an additional reference that indicates "...forums were free to be read, but requried 25 cents to post an opinion and a dollar to start a new forum" (Bell, 2004, p.15). I stand corrected - one aspect of Community Memory was free to use, while the other components required the user to pay. It seems the system's goal was to help preserve the political, social, and cultural memory of the community at the time. The last idea reminds me alot of the social media that we have today, and the way there is a written electronic record of events. I wonder if the Community Memory postings have been preserved and can be accessed by the public to read? Interesting thought to reflect on!! Knowledgeagent33 (talk) 17:37, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

It would be beneficial to reorganize the content of this article into more appropriate headings, although time constraints and an already heavy workload prevents me from taking this task on. Knowledgeagent33 (talk) 23:54, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Actually, the first iteration of Community Memory, with terminals at Leopold's Records, and then the Whole Earth Access Store in Berkeley and the Mission Branch Library in San Francisco, was absolutely free. The coin-operated stuff was much later. I'll try to find an external reference for this (yeah, no original research!) and edit the article to clarify this. szpak (talk) 19:37, 4 October 2016 (UTC)

I am curious if the content got preserved anywhere? Mathiastck (talk) 17:36, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

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