3 Rivers Connect – Who are they?
3 Rivers Connect (3rc) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate economic, social and educational development through innovative uses of information technology. 3rc was founded in 1998 and is led by a board of twenty-three directors hailing from the high technology, educational, philanthropic and civic communities. 3rc addresses the Pittsburgh region’s information infrastructure needs through initiating and coordinating both short and long-term information technology initiatives in the region. These initiatives include endeavors in four related program areas: Infrastructure, Portals, Education, and E-vangelism. 3rc often partners with other agencies in its initiatives and also makes its services available to agencies as needed.
The Information Commons® – What is that all about?
When 3rc formed, its founding board members coined a term to describe the philosophical component of their mission – the Information Commons - a cyberplace where every resident and visitor to this region can learn, work, and interact. Back then, verbiage that defined the Information Commons fundamentally described a utopian version of the Internet and the unfledged World Wide Web of 1997.
Many recognize the use of the term “commons” from economic literature describing community use, or misuse, of public land. Centric to this notion of a public good is the acceptance that a community is not just private homes and businesses, but also roads, parks, monuments, airports, civic centers, water plants, and a thousand other items created at public expense for the public good. One of the things that separate true communities from mere settlements is that communities build together for the common good. A commons is free to all (not necessarily without charge, but "free" in the sense that, within certain rules, they are available to everyone on an equitable basis.
Economists also speak of the "Tragedy of the Commons", referring to the tendency for common resources to be used in preference to privately-held equivalents, and thus be subject to overuse and abuse. But, not all commons are subject to such abuse. Certain resources are not consumed when they are used. If I share with you my mother's recipe for raisin bread, it in no way diminishes my ability to employ the recipe myself (unless, perhaps, I take pleasure in keeping a family secret). Indeed, such information resources are often improved by use, since active attention by a community of interest tends to improve the quality of the common resource. In these cases, we see the exact opposite of the Tragedy of the Commons: a situation in which all of society is enriched to the extent that we can make common information resources effectively available for broad sharing and diverse use.
3 Rivers Connect was founded in large part under the recognition that modern information technology has brought us as a society to a point at which many of our most important societal activities primarily involve information resources. As the above argument suggests, this implies that we as a community are presented with a thrilling opportunity: to create – as a large-scale public works project – a true Information Commons, to the mutual and lasting benefit of (in the words of the original 3RC mission statement) "every citizen and visitor" of the region. The founders of 3RC articulated a broad, ambitious agenda for creating such a Commons, and using it both as a model for the rest of the world and also as a vehicle for economic and civic development of the region. Although, in the words of Ted Nelson, we may have been guilty of confusing a clear vision with a short distance, we have nonetheless built a very solid foundation for the fulfillment of this vision. The present document is intended as a roadmap and a plan for action for setting in motion the many challenging steps necessary for this fulfillment.
3rc quickly realized that our original stated mission of building an Information Commons was difficult to communicate. Furthermore, the mission would require significant capacity building on both the information supply and information demand side of the learning curve. Public and private agencies in the Pittsburgh region were simply ill prepared to participate or financially support our vision of a digital utopia. Consequently, 3rc’s focus in 2000, 2001, and 2002 targeted IT capacity building at the most fundamental levels. Early 3rc projects included telecommunications infrastructure improvement initiatives; developing best practices in making public data available on the Internet, and; improving grassroots use of technology through education support programs, hardware, and high speed broadband. While these core programs were essential and, in fact, continue today, 3rc also built portals to provide general public access to digital information about Pittsburgh – a preview of the Information Commons.
Currently, positive public relations and project successes have elevated 3rc’s standing in the nonprofit and private sectors to that of a technology advocate and leader in providing internet services to the nonprofit sector in Pittsburgh. We are also considered progressive in Internet-based information sharing, although we have yet to produce a true Information Commons signature project. Interestingly enough, what is progressive about many of our projects is not necessarily their technology. Rather, we have built our reputation on advancing politically challenged or complex projects with a technology component. We earned respect from our ability to develop and administer successful projects, raise funds, manage contractors, build partnerships, and aggregate demand for technology to achieve economies of scale.
3rc has made significant strides in building capacity in the third sector through our ISP infrastructure projects, PC distribution program, and public portal projects. 3rc is now concurrently revisiting and expanding our activities in actual information aggregation and access. Our work in educational software development and distribution, for example, will serve as a model for effective use of technology for both student achievement and school administration. Similarly, our Special Education software development pilot project will be expanded to other school districts. We will also build upon our investments in portal projects beginning with ACOC Evaluation Station® and greenpittsburgh.net. We are also working with ACOC and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services to increase the use and acceptance of Evaluation Station through a targeted PR and marketing campaign. We will also create at least one additional web presence utilizing and enhancing the UForm and greenpittsburgh mapping technology called humanservices.net.
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