Abstract
Emerging from the ashes of the original, disused community website, GraniteNet 'Phoenix' was reinvented in 2006 through a research and development partnership between the University of Southern Queensland and members of the Stanthorpe community who were passionate about harnessing the possibilities presented by emerging information and communications technology for enhanced social connectivity, community networking and lifelong learning. The vision of this new GraniteNet was
for a sustainable community-owned, -designed and -managed web portal that would support Stanthorpe's development as a 'learning community'.
Today GraniteNet (www.granitenet.com.au) still operates as a community website and community-based digital inclusion social enterprise (GraniteNet, Inc). This chapter tells the story of GraniteNet as a community capacity building project from the perspectives of two of the project's initiators and longer term protagonists: the local community development worker and learning community 'champion' on the one
hand, and the university researcher (or 'broker') on the other. Through telling their respective GraniteNet stories, the authors revisit notions of learning, partnership and community and explore their understandings and experiences of community capacity building in order to share these with readers who, like the authors, seek greater insight into their educational and social nature and impact.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Community capacity-building |
| Subtitle of host publication | lessons from adult learning in Australia |
| Editors | Glen David Postle, Lorelle Jane Burton, Patrick Alan Danaher |
| Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
| Publisher | NIACE |
| Pages | 160-176 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781862017221 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |