Members of the MIRA PSOs meet at the 1999 Rural TeleCon in Aspen, Colorado

The Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy works to bring civil rights groups into the current debate over the future of the technology and media environment. The Forum conducts research which identifies inequitable service and discrimination; monitors policymakers in Congress, the FCC, and other federal agencies on communication issues that impact minority, poor, and rural communities; reports and publishes the results of the research and monitoring activity; and hosts meetings to forge working alliances.

As part of the MIRA project, the Forum, in partnership with the Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet), is working to develop the public policy and support skills of existing rural community technology programs.

The Forum is using the internet to build a tool kit for rural communities to supply them with information and resources so that the communities can work towards having a positive affect on the government and telecommunication and technology policy.

This tool kit will be a website to be launched in June of 2000 and will consist of six stories from example communities divided into three categories: telecommunication policy, broadcast policy, and information policy.

The Forum is also providing an article a month in each issue of The Forum Connection, a monthly paper and online newsletter, with updates on rural America, which can be reached via their homepage.