Kent: What I have begun to increasingly realize in my own work over the past 30 years or so, as is the case with many other people that I work with, is that the issue if one of negotiation and translation between completely different sets of knowledge, skills and interests  between, among other groups, Systems Thinkers and Community Scientists.

Systems designers are just that: designers, they are not community sociologists. They think in very complex ways about computing, how to get things to 'work'. Community practitioners are just that: practitioners: they are experts in communities, not systems designers: They think in very complex ways about communities of practice, and about how to get communities to 'work' more effectively, perhaps.

As for the internet, many 'community' people (at least in my experience) are working in a very different practice dimension, though there are great possibilities for dialogue, but 'technological' determinism can also interfere.  See http://webstylus.net/?q=node/254 for a recent case study written from a perspective of a community-based organization. Add in political interests etc, and it gets messier yet.

Frank Voehl