From: kfogel@mark1.cs.oberlin.edu (Karl Fogel)
Subject: Re: Govt. Online
Organization: Oberlin College Computer Science
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 22:34:27 GMT
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In article <34920928165843_0002737218NA2EM@mcimail.com> 0002737218@mcimail.com (David W. Batterson) writes:

		    ONLINE ACCESS TO ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES
				by David Batterson

   It is vital that we get our elected officials (or their key staff members)
   online.  To do this, we must contact them and _demand_ it.  Our elected
   officials work for US; _we_ pay their salaries.  We want to make it more
   convenient for us (the voters) to express our views and receive feedback
   quickly (rather than weeks or months for snailmail to be written and
   mailed out to constituents).  Congressional staffers have internal email
   via LANs for _their_ convenience.  But what about the convenience
   of the _voters_ (their bosses)?  Why are _we_ neglected?

   Please edit this form (or create your own form/letter) and mail/fax it to
   your elected representatives (city, county, state and federal).  And please
   distribute this widely.  If enough of us say we want online access, we will
   _get_ it.

	[rest of letter and form deleted]


	


	This is a good idea, but there is one important difference
between snail-mail and email that is being overlooked here: everyone
has (essentially) free access to snail-mail, but only those with
computer/net access can use email. Perhaps this development can wait
till there are terminals in every public library linked to the
Internet? Having email access to legislators is like saying "For all
you people with $$$, here's a faster and easier way to reach us. The
rest of you can use good old Prehistoric Post ... it'll get here
eventually." As enthusiastic as I want to be about this, it's all too
easy to forget that most citizens have never heard the word "email".
Until they are using it, having congress on the net will give a
tremendous persuasive advantage to the small minority of people who
can use it to contact them (or perhaps most politicians will realize
what a small percentage of the voting public their electronic mail
represents, and ignore it). There are other possibilities: ftp
sites where they can post position papers (there's nothing unfair about
informing this small percentage of people where you stand), and maybe
mailing lists going one-way from the legislator to the people on the
list. It's the flow of information from the net to the legislator that
gives an advantage to computer users.
	I am playing devil's advocate to some degree here, but these are
real concerns. Thoughts, anyone? It's cold in Ohio -- I welcome flames!

--

 Karl Fogel ("Leg of Lark") :     Member, League for Programming Freedom.    
 kfogel@occs.cs.oberlin.edu : ***  Help stop the patenting of ideas now!  ***
 fogel@antares.mcs.anl.gov  :  Feel free to mail me for more info on the LPF 
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