The Role of Local Government in Community Informatics Success Prospects : the Autonomy/Harmony Model

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the emerging literature on community informatics as the backdrop for a model that can explain and predict the success prospects of community informatics projects. We start by presenting the major themes in the research on community informatics to date. The review highlights issues that have attracted most research efforts on community informatics. We conclude this discussion by asserting that issues related to the explanation and/or prediction of community informatics success prospects, particularly in the context of local government working with communities have not received enough attention. Hence, the need for a theoretical model that focuses on this area. We proceed to present the Autonomy/Harmony model, with examples from a series of Australian regional projects where local government authorities played a leading role. We conclude the paper with an outline of the major directions for future research emanating from the Autonomy/Harmony model.