PESTE and SWOT analysis of CommunityNetworking

From What The Wiki?!

As part of the seminar on NonTechnicalChallengesInCommunityNetworking I hope that we will be able to reuse some methodologies from the corporate world to our advantage.

I'd like us to do a P.E.S.T.E Analysis for community networks

  • Political / legal
  • Economic
  • Socio - cultural
  • Technological
  • Ecological

I've begun to outline the five headings here. Please add to them and develop the seminar discussion inbetween now and the event.

Contents

Political / legal factors

  • Corporate structure - co-op, company, not for profit, fully-mutual association,union?
  • Radio spectrum regulation- frequency allocation and auction, global commons?
  • Urban planning issues - permissions, permits, conservation,

Economic factors

How are community networks paid for?

  • Public (i.e. State) funding
  • Private Capital - investment, sponsorship, grants, philanthropy,
  • redevelopment and social funds
  • regeneration & economic stimulation

Socio - cultural factors

Let's discuss:

  • Population demographics, Income distribution, Social mobility
  • Attitudes - to community projects, to free software, to technology generally!
  • Consumerism - why people will buy from BigCorp ISP and not join CommunityISP
  • Levels of education - about technology, business models, the internet
  • Community - a single group or a seperation (example: two groups - geeks & non-geeks)

Technological factors

You didn't think this was going to be all non-technical did you?

Let's discuss:

  • Disruptive technology - threatens the dominant model of service provision
  • Speed of technology transfer
  • Rates of obsolescence

Ecological/environment factors

Let's discuss:

  • Pollution
  • Sustainability
  • Recycled technology