The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Contents

• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments and Caveat
• Preface From LCEF
• Preface From MIT's CRCP
• Introduction: Off Course on a Long Dark Road

Part One

• Section 254
• Section 255
• Section 706
• The Impact on Rural America

Part Two

• Section 202
• Media Mergers (1995-2001)
• A Brief Note on Mergers
• Telecom Mergers (1996-2001) 
• Section 336

Part Three

• Section 257
• Section 714

Afterword

• Does the Digital Divide Still Exist?

Appendix

• The Authors
• About CRFCP
• About LCEF
• About MIT's CRCP

MIT's Center for Reflective Community Practice

The Center for Reflective Community Practice (CRCP) was established in 1998 as an outgrowth of the former Community Fellows Program at MIT s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP). The Center was founded on the belief that the very forces that have brought about current social, economic, and technological inequities, particularly among inner-city communities and groups of color, also present opportunities for building sustainable local efforts to address them. However, as most such communities often lack the technical and critical inquiry skills and resources necessary to tap their own knowledge, the Center was organized to bridge gaps among community-based practitioners, information technology, and urban planning education.

CRCP is organized around one fundamental question: If we are in a social, political and economic era in which information and knowledge are substantive forms of capital, what are the tools, processes, and strategies that can support poor and underserved communities in cultivating this form of capital for their own development?

While much effort is being made to understand the "information" part of this question (i. e. asset mapping, community networks, community information systems) there is limited work in understanding the "knowledge" part of this question. This is particularly true in relation to poor and disenfranchised people and their communities.

The pathway to supporting communities in this effort is twofold: First it requires the development of methods for uncovering the knowledge that resides in and emerges from practice, whether that is conducting a community meeting, knowing who to talk to and how, or learning from one's decisions and struggles. Reflection enables community practitioners' capacity to respond to complexity in deeply introspective ways. It seeks to give practitioners tools for transformation, in the areas of technology, economic development, and community empowerment. Second is the development of technologies and media that support the capture, storage, integration, sharing, and management of the knowledge that resides in communities. From narrative accounts to storytelling, to visual representations to audio recordings of conversations and meetings, capturing and integrating multiple ways of knowing is increasingly complex and rewarding.

CRCP offers a variety of study, research and teaching opportunities for MIT students, faculty, and community practitioners.