He then established and ran a management consulting firm, Socioscope, undertaking research linking organizations to information technology.
While on Cape Breton Island, he founded the Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking (C/CEN) as a community-based research laboratory (what has now come to be known as a living lab) exploring possible applications of information and communications technologies to support social change in what was then one of Canada's most economically disadvantaged regions.
The centre also undertook the first NetCorps placement (in Angola) and provided online support to the local Cape Breton music industry.
Within the area of community informatics, a major contribution has been Gurstein's introduction of the notion of "effective use" as a critical analytical framework for assessing technology implementation superseding approaches based on the more commonly accepted frameworks such as that of the "digital divide".
He was also a member of the High Level Panel of Advisers of the UN's Global Alliance for ICT and Development.