community news from our own backyard...

[Doug Schuler]

>From Industry Standard  Jan 18, 1999
http://www.thestandard.com/articles/display/0,1449,3162,00.html

Community Builder Rheingold Is Back
By Michelle V. Rafter

Howard Rheingold, the online pioneer who evangelized electronic
neighborhoods a decade before the current wave of Web-based
neighborhoods was conceived, is at it again.  Rheingold - who literally
wrote the book on digital communities and then went out of business on
a for-profit version called Electric Minds - is setting up online
communities for ISP Channel, a division of SoftNet Systems that helps
get small cable-TV operators into the Internet access business.  The
Mountain View, Calif.-based company hopes to create demand for cable
modems by getting small-town folks interested in high-speed access.
That's where the 51-year-old Rheingold comes in. He and partner Richard
Civille are heading up the program, called Locale, by spreading the
gospel of civic networking to city councils, school boards, police
departments - in ISP Channel locations.  In Kennebunk and
Kennebunkport, Maine, town leaders have given the two an oral history
of the area around which to base a Web site. Rheingold and Civille have
also convinced the Bainbridge Island, Wash., volunteer fire department
to install public-access PCs for firefighters to use during off hours.
For now, ISP Channel is picking up the tab, spending "in the thousands
but not the tens of thousands" on pilot projects, according to
Rheingold.  Subscriber fees are split with cable operators. If all goes
well, ISP Channel will continue to provide some money for local content
in each city where it has cable partners. Eventually, Rheingold sees
communities funding their own efforts. Locale's motive is just to get
them up to speed.  To the extent Rheingold and ISP Channel can do well
by doing good, maybe this time he'll make that buck.

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