The community of Crooksville, Ohio is dedicated to improving their use of communications and information technologies. Their efforts are truly community-wide in scope, involving a partnership among the village government, the local schools, the county library system, the local senior citizens organization, and a group of volunteers from a wide variety of backgrounds.

The group, which was partially funded by the MIRA grant, conducts a wide variety of activities:

• F.R.I.E.N.D. (Former Residents In an Electronic Database)--This program created a searchable database of former residents and students of the the Crooksville area on the Internet. It can be used in networking or making contacts with other former Crooksville residents regarding jobs, hobbies, or other interests.
• N.A.B. (Notices And Bulletins)--This program will create an electronic bulletin board on the Internet which can be used to advertise events in the Crooksville Area, display schedules, or make public announcements.
• S.C.A.T. (School and Community Area Television)--This program will operate a channel on the local cable television system. Currently it is only capable of displaying computer created advertisements and notices. They hope to be able to televise locally created videotapes of important public meetings, sports events, or other happenings in the near future. It will also have audio coverage of local weather broadcasts and taped news coverage of local events.
• S.P.A.D.E. (Saving Pictures And Documents Electronically)--This program will provide the means whereby local residents or organizations may preserve their important or historic documents, photographs, or other printed materials on a CD-ROM.
• A.S.C.K. (Advancing Seniors' Computer Knowledge)--This program will provide a computer, monitor, printer, and Internet service to the local Senior Citizens' Center. Local students will volunteer their time to tutor the residents in the equipment's use.
• C.O.L.A.B. (Computer Operations LABoratory)--The Crooksville Schools will open their computer laboratory for use by the general public during evenings and on week-ends. Classes in computer usage and software applications will also be provided.
• E=MC˛ (Electronically Marketing Crooksville Commerce)--This program created a website called buycrooksville.com. Customers from around the world can buy products such as pottery, hand-crafted baskets, or artwork from a variety of local manufacturers and artists.

The M.I.R.A. initiatives will become self-supporting through the collection of minimal fees for such services as document preservation or computer classes, advertising on Cable Channel Three, sales commissions from the e-commerce site, and grants from other organizations.