mwg.org | ePublishing: Creating Cyber Places: The Civil Rights Forum and Community Technology Centers' Network Join in Telecommunications Public Policy Project



	Creating Cyber Places
Creating CyberPlaces: Notes on Creating Public Space by Fred Johnson Current Strategies for Cable Franchising: An Opportunity to Enhance the Public Communications Infrastructure by Joe Van Eaton Publicly Owned Networks: Considering the Options by Brenda J. Trainor Telecommunications Policy in the Public Interest: Putting Communities First by June Holley Designing Telecommunications Infrastructure to Revitalize Regional Economies: A presentation before the State of New York Task Force on Telecommunications by June Holley The Civil Rights Forum and Community Technology Centers' Network Join in Telecommunications Public Policy Project by Peter Miller Publsh new text	The Civil Rights Forum and Community Technology Centers' Network Join in Telecommunications Public Policy Project by Peter Miller October 16, 2002 Through a new program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation called "Managing Information with Rural America" (MIRA), the Civil Rights Forum (the Forum) based in Washington DC and Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet) headquarters in Boston, MA, will be providing rural communities and programs interested in telecommunications policy with a number of resources for their work. The partners will assist communities in developing and implementing specific communications public policy projects, involve the rural communities in the national and state communications policy debate, create and manage an on-line public policy school which will serve as an ongoing resource to all rural communities and other grassroots communications organizers, and re-destribute grants totaling $70,000 to rural CTCNet affiliates over two years. Through the regranting process, CTCNet and the Forum will provide $1,000-3,000 mini-grants to rural community media projects. These grants will allow affiliates to create and implement public policy projects which complement their existing programs. These projects will be designed to connect the affiliates' local experiences to the broader policy issues that affect rural communities and general issues of equity and access, and equality in telecommunications policy. Thus, in addition to stand-alone policy projects, literacy and job training programs will be encouraged to develop letter-writing to legislators and regulatory agency members as integral program components, and public presentations before appropriate bodies can also be developed as appropriate citizenship and life skills training. Successful grantees will be provided funds to capture their learnings and design effective tools for communicating those lessons. A growing number of Alliance for Community Media-affiliated PEG access centers that are expanding their community media offerings to include access to computers and the Internet are members of CTCNet, and all rural programs will be encouraged to apply for $1,000-3,000 minigrants to help develop their work in telecommunications policy. These projects will be designed to connect the affiliates' local experiences to the broader policy issues that affect rural communities and general issues of equity and access, and equality in telecommunications policy. Thus, in addition to stand-alone policy projects, literacy and job training programs will be encouraged to develop letter-writing to legislators and regulatory agency members as integral program components; public presentations before appropriate bodies can also be developed as appropriate citizenship and life skills training. Successful grantees will be provided funds to capture their learnings and design effective tools for communicating those lessons. The work of these affiliates will be coordinated on the CTCNet side by Peter Miller (peterm@ctcnet), former Network Director. He will assist local affiliates in managing their project initiatives as well as provide general CTCNet support to them. The overall goals are to expand the general support and base of community technology centers in rural areas, help them develop specific programs with a telecommunications policy emphasis, and provide the resulting resources to other efforts supported by the Kellogg MIRA program and elsewhere. The Civil Rights Forum will manage the creation of an online policy school for rural communities. The policy school will provide online group and individual interactive courses on policy issues. Its goal at the end of this initiative is for each of the CTCNet affiliates and the MIRA communities to have developed their own course for the policy school. In this way the project will begin to create a Digital Folk School where the stories and learnings of each community are presented in an environment that supports on-going learning. For more information about the project, visit the web site at http://www.ctcnet.org/mira.	CTCNet Assistance CTCNet is the largest affiliation of community-based technology centers serving underserved neighborhoods in the country. CTCNet provides written, electronic, and in-person linkages through its web site, numerous electronic discussion lists, a monthly online newsletter, a semiannual Review and Center Start-Up Manual, national conferences and a growing number of regional meetings and workshops. CTCNet develops national and regional collaborations and partnerships that assist members in implementing responsive delivery systems to meet the needs of their participants and communities. CTCNet supports the joint acm-ctcnet discussion list which you can subscribe to by sending email to majordomo@igc.org and writing in the body of the message: subscribe acm-ctcnet. When Malden (MA) Access TV wanted to expand its mission to include the Internet, computers, and digital media, they argued that their root purpose had remained constant but grown with the times and technology: to give people who don't normally have access to communications technologies the ways and means to express their ideas. The Forum/CTCNet grants are but one example of the kinds of opportunities that PEG access centers can take advantage of with expanded programs, and franchising is a key opportunity time to take advantage of mobilizing resources and allies for expanding in new directions. Potential Directions Another potential direction for expanded community media programs to explore is in the arena of providing technology assistance to nonprofits in their area. Not only do a wide range of community organizations need to learn how to take advantage of community video, they also need a range of support in planning and integrating the use of computer and Internet technology directly into their organizations. For more information about a newly developing project mobilizing resources in this arena, check out the National Strategy for Nonprofit Technology at http://www.rffund.org/strategy.