I just commented on a great post by Mike Gurstein  on The Ethical Responsibility of Researchers in Community Informatics (partially quoted below my response)

My comment:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you Mike for saying this. 

The dreaded hit-and-run researcher syndrome. Exactly so.

Ref "The relationship is however, often or most generally not an equal one." Perhaps one day we'll get a chance to work together to show how things could be if the basis for research was genuine participation, equality and collaboration -  true win-win.

Dadamac would certainly be more than willing to help -  see Dadamac - the Internet-enabled alternative to top-down development  http://dadamac.posterous.com/dadamac-the-internet-enabled-alternative-to-t

Maybe an interesting first step (both academic and practical) would be to explore the stumbling blocks to doing such a piece of genuinely collaborative research.

I could get on my soap box about this - but probably best for now that I simply express my appreciation to you, and encourage you to continue the good work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As both an academic (and research) discipline and a community (and policy) practice, Community Informatics links a variety of communities and many with a widely varying degree of resources and opportunities.

As a research and academic (teaching) discipline CI draws extensively from the creativity and generosity of communities in sharing their experiences and knowledge as a basis for undertaking research and for providing learners with the opportunity to gain directly from the knowledge and experience of those working directly in and with communities and ICTs.

The relationship is however, often or most generally not an equal one. (continued at http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/the-ethical-responsibility-of-researchers-in-community-informatics