He pledged to create a system that would allow the entire country to have electronic access to congressional documents. There was certainly room for improvement on the Hill. Gingrich knew that Congress could do much more. It was a fresh and forward-looking plan. Unfortunately, it didn't go very far.
Lobbyists still have better access than any plugged-in commoner.
Members of Congress, who in '94 were amazingly un-wired as a group, have learned to make use of the Net, but mostly in the interest of campaigning, managing PR, or scoring partisan political points. Everyone remembers how quickly the House Judiciary Committee posted Kenneth Starr's salacious report on the Monica Lewinsky mess and other impeachment-related documents, many of which embarrassed Bill Clinton. And every member of Congress now has a self-glorifying Web site. Even so, much of Congress' basic work cannot be accessed on the Net. And these days, there is little rah-rah talk on the Hill about changing that.