From: fig@eff.org (Cliff Figallo)
Subject: Re: One good thing about the EFF mess
Originator: fig@eff.org
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:22:55 GMT

harwell@bandw.panam.edu (Anne Harwell) writes:

>The best thing that has come of all this is that it has forced people
>within EFF who ordinarily don't spend too much time on the net to realize
>that there are real people on the other end of the wire. Whether this
>realization will soak through to Berman & Co. as they take up digs in the
>Seat of Power remains to be seen. I am not holding my breath.

>-abh

I have to pipe up and point out that this is the most simplistic of 
arguments.  EFF was founded because of the obvious needs of real people
on the nets.  Its founders and board, seeking to help form an integrated
plan for the future growth of a national network, hired Jerry Berman
because of his background working for the creation of the Electronic
Communication Privacy Act among other telecommunications policy issues.
It is flawed reasoning to believe that because one doesn't "spend too
much time on the net" one does not "realize that there are real people
on the other end of the wire."  Come on, give me a break.  Not all of
us have jobs that allow us to spend the hour or more a day dealing with
newsgroups and conferencing in addition to the hour or two involved with
email.  Not even EFF staff.  We do have other things to do in our long
work days.

I am taking the role of maintaining EFF's net presence along with Mike 
Godwin and Shari Steele.  I will make sure that comments, critical and
supporting, are relayed from net forums to the appropriate parties
on EFF's staff and board.  If there is a need for those parties to
participate in an ongoing dialog or to directly respond to an inquiry
or accusation, I will point them to it.  I am compiling a weekly digest
of net activity to circulate among EFF staff and board so that viewpoints on 
issues under discussion are represented within EFF.  I am also working
with EFF staff to address misunderstandings of EFF positions and policies,
wording EFF outgoing communications to better explain what we are doing
and why.  EFF does not pretend to believe that it will convince everyone
of the correctness of its positions, but it wants to make sure that those
positions are stated clearly.

EFF's board just met this past weekend with representatives of several
regional groups who had been considering chapter affiliation with EFF.
Given that EFF has decided not to support a chapter structure, we met
in Atlanta to discuss EFF, it's agenda and its role in relation to 
grassroots groups.  Jerry chaired the meeting.  The results were that
the grassroots representatives aligned with EFF's policy agenda, asking
that EFF do a better job of communicating its strategy to the public
and that EFF continue with its civil liberties agenda, which it never
considered dropping anyway.  We found many common areas of agreement
and intend to continue communicating through the mail list called
thesegroups@tic.com.  News of activities of local independent groups 
will become a regular feature of EFFector Online.  This meeting showed
all of us that EFF and the grassroots networking community are, indeed,
still on the same planet.



-- 
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Cliff Figallo                                     fig@eff.org
Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation          (617)864-0665 (voice)
Cambridge Office                                  (617)864-0866 (fax)