Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Bonding Over Bushfires: Social Networks In Action, Mark Freeman, Alison Freeman

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

A world-first nation-wide community website scheme was established in Australia in 2006 to enhance existing, and build new, social networks within geographic communities. By doing so, it sought to promote geographic community engagement. Initially, this paper presents an overview of the scheme since its inception and review the current geographic community groups participating in the scheme. To date the scheme has had limited success in attracting a critical mass of communities that value the promoted benefits of social networks in this format, with only 154 community websites across Australia. While it has not achieved the expected level of uptake, the …