Every magazine, newspaper, and television show mentions computers and the Internet as commonplace appliances and services. The use of computers and the Internet has expanded drastically in just a few years. Even if you don't have one, almost everyone has heard of computers and the Internet, from hermits in the Himalayas, to prisoners in long term solitary confinement. Most businesses, government offices, congressional offices, and judicial courts, are on the Net. Laptop computers are practically required tools for college students.
Many colleges provide laptops and e-mail addresses for the students.
About 200 people are on our e-mail list discussing ways to work for prisoner release and the end to the drug war. There are at least 40 drug policy reform organizations with websites full of information and reform movement agendas. Several years ago, only the disaffected techno-people with libertarian philosophies inhabited computer nooks in basements and bedrooms where they surfed the Net and used code names in chat rooms. The politics of Net users as a group has changed. According to Graeme Browning, communications director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, in Washington, D.C., the new online community tends to be older, more politically aware, and far more politically involved.