Machinery and community: the Atherton Gardens community network experiment

This paper is concerned with the expectations associated with a current example of social partnerships oriented to ‘community-building’ though the social use of technology. Our central case study is provided by the Reach for the Clouds project being undertaken at Atherton Gardens, a high rise public housing estate in inner Melbourne by InfoXchange Australia, a not for profit enterprise, working in conjunction with Government departments, private companies and other third sector agencies. The paper explores some of the issues which are raised when a large, complex project with social justice aims is initiated as a social partnership, discussing some of the challenges and complexities of managing a project with numerous stakeholders across the public, private and not for profit sectors.