The Network was officially established following the Many Voices, Many Places Colloquium at the Monash Centre, Prato, Italy in September 2003. Currently there are some 200 individuals associated with the Network representing all continents, and more than 50 countries, and with research qualifications in Community Development, Development Studies, Computer Science, Information Science, Social Science, Planning, Management, and Social Administration among others.

Currently there are CIRN networks in Canada, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, the UK and the United States. CIRN is the outcome of several years of informal discussions concerning the need for an international network concerned with a community based approach to the design and implementation of ICTs.

The intent of the Network is to ensure that these implementations are informed by the range of available knowledge and experience concerning the community use of ICTs and to provide as might be required the range of technical, social science, and community development skills that are needed by such implementations.

CIRN uniquely recognizes that community based technology development and implementation requires a unique set of complementary and integrated inter-disciplinary social, technical and research skills and insights to successfully achieve sustainable community ICT use.