Community network is a term used broadly to indicate the use of networking technologies by, and for, a local community. Free-nets and civic networks indicate roughly the same range of projects and services, whereas community technology centers (CTCs) and telecentres generally indicate a physical facility to compensate for lack of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs).
Although there is no absolute agreement on the definition of the term, it is generally agreed that a community network is a computer-based system that is intended to help support geographical communities by supporting, augmenting, and extending already existing social networks.
Famous quotes containing the words community and/or network:
“There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
“How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)