Full title : Memories and Local Communities : an Experience in Venice Running title : Memories and Local Communities

The European project Campiello (ESPRIT LTR # 25572), as part of its methodology, is conducting an experiment of social observation and intervention regarding the process of community making in Venice, with a special focus on the role of memory collection and re-elaboration in such a process. In this paper the social observation is presented describing its context, a particular local community inhabiting a Venice neighborhood, and the activities carried on by a local school to collect and represent the community memories. This experience is then used for a reflection about how Information Technology could extend the process and enhance it. For this purpose the process around memories is described according to four subactivities: collection, dissemination, representation and enrichment. For each of them the needs and requirements coming from the observation are presented and existing possible technologies to support them are briefly described. .H\ZRUGV Design methodology, community memories