Today's commercial organisations harness networked technology to improve business efficiency and effectiveness. Similarly, modern electronic community networks provide both community information and a means of electronic communication within and between communities. The information needs of each individual citizen within a community varies according to their personal, family and social circumstances, and making and maintaining contact with the growing number of organisations, groups and agencies that impact on our daily lives is a complex and sometimes impossible task. Access to the right information at the right time and in a user friendly and understandable format, together with the ability to communicate with appropriate organisations should be a basic right in today's Information Society. It is essential for those suffering from social exclusion.
Social exclusion can impact on the unemployed or the homeless, the disabled or the elderly.
However, the phrase social exclusion can equally be applied to those living in rural and peripheral communities who for whatever reason are deprived of essential support services. A community-based information resource which provides local people with local information across the widest possible spectrum can go some way to addressing the problem of social exclusion through information deprivation. Community information resources Clearly the type of information provided is a central issue to the success of any community information resource, and community-based Internet initiatives are no different. The information needs of any community can only be ascertained by an exhaustive exercise of community analysis or profiling. In other words, it is essential that the community is given the fullest opportunity to participate in the process by being asked about their information needs.