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Beyond Kiwanis: Internet builds new communities – How are you participating?

James Cudney manages three kids, frequent business trips and up to 15 homeland defense programs for a technology company. His wife, Elaine, works full-time at a top accounting firm and is active in a business club. He’s a Cub Scout leader; she’s the Scout pack treasurer. They go to church, attend community events and rarely miss school functions.

So forgive the Cudneys if they don’t buy popular arguments that sprawl, mobility and the automobile have unraveled community bonds in American life. The Cudneys are as connected and engaged as they’ve ever been.

"But I would not be able to be involved if it wasn’t for the Internet," says James Cudney, 41. "I wouldn’t have been able to be the Cubmaster of Pack 152 without e-mail. I don’t have time to do traditional phone trees and calendars by hand."

Five years after sociologist Robert Putnam documented the decline of community involvement in his book Bowling Alone, a new spirit of civic engagement is flourishing, largely because of 21st-century technology. cell phones, e-mails, instant text messaging and Blackberries are helping mobile, busy Americans link up with neighbors on their commutes to work, in the middle of the night and on business trips.

"I was sitting in a hotel room in New York on a Sunday afternoon sending e-mails, having a real-time exchange, with (another parent and Cub leader), and he was in the airport in Dallas," Cudney says. Issues were resolved without a meeting or even a phone call.

Technology, coupled with the rising number of families who have school-age children and retirees who have leisure time, is raising hopes that more Americans are again investing "social capital."

"People are physically more connected to their community because of Internet use," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which researches the impact of the Internet on everything from families and communities to education, health care and politics. "People can give an increment of their time because the Internet is facilitating that."

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-06-01-technology-communities_x.htm

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There are good opportunities in Montana. One example in Missoula is City Club Missoula. It’s your chance to connect and contribute.

Event Opportunities:

City Club Missoula- The Impacts And Effects Of The Legislative Session, 6/15, Missoula http://www.matr.net/article-14803.html

HomeTown Competitiveness- "A Come-Back/Give-Back Approach To Rural Community Building, 6/21-22, Glendive, MT http://www.matr.net/article-14704.html

City Club Missoula – John Wall Of Palmerston North, New Zealand Sister City Committee, 6/24, Missoula http://www.matr.net/article-14708.html

City Club Missoula Information: http://www.matr.net/article-14354.html

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