Copyright (c) 1994 by the authors. Permission is granted to reproduce this document entirely or in part, as long as done without any charges except the approximate costs of reproduction. The authors are not responsible for the accuracy of excerpts, or even the continued accuracy of the original work as time changes all things, but especially the location of stuff on the Internet. ¨LM0ø 1. Introduction 2. How to find our government 2.1. Congress 2.1.1. Finding legislation 2.1.2. Finding legislators 2.1.3. ftp.senate.gov 2.1.4. hr.house.gov 2.2. Whitehouse.gov (email to gore & clinton) 2.3. Federal agencies 2.4. Supreme and other courts (courts.*) 2.5. State and local 3. Issues and answers 3.1. Political net resources 3.1.1. Mailing lists 3.1.2. Newsgroups 3.1.3. Gophers 3.1.4. Library of congress 3.1.5. Yanoff's, December's and other lists 3.1.6. Misc 3.2. Activists on the net 3.2.1. CPSR 3.2.2. EFF 3.2.3. TAP 3.2.4. SEA 3.2.5. VTW 4. How to talk to our government 4.1. Opinions by fax 4.1.1 faxing without a fax machine 4.2. Opinions by email 4.3. RFCs 4.4. Misc (eg, press conferences on-line) 5. The traditional media online 5.1 Contacting the media 5.2 Media archives on the net 5.3 Media newsgroups 6. Where to go from here 7. Appendixes -------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction Computers are funny things. People can use them to find out about the world, but they are often used to find out more about computers themselves. Programmers save their best efforts to create tools for themselves, The comp hierarchy is the most fully-formed of any in Usenet, and the big computer manufacturers probably have more computer power per employee than the rest of the Fortune 500 combined. "By recursion, I mean something defined recursively" is one of our favorite definitions. When we talk about technology and activism, we could be talking about either of two things. The first is using computers to enhance our existing activist activities. The second is to become activists about the issues engendered by computers and other new technologies. We don't really want to choose between these, and so in this guide we'll talk about both. If you currently think you're only interesting in one of these, please be patient with the other half. And hopefully, by the time you're done with the guide, you'll be interested in both. * * * Computers can be used to enhance our privacy, and they can be used to intrude on our lives in ways hitherto impossible. They don't care which they do, and sometimes it seems we don't either. Credit checking agencies pass on all kinds of data about us, false as well as true, to anyone who pays their fees. State motor vehicle departments will sell your height, weight, and eye color, as well as your address, to any direct marketeer who buys their list. Supermarkets will give you a small discount in order to collect your shopping patterns, and will sell these profiles as well as use them themselves. And criminals are routinely caught by the evidence of their phone and credit card bills. Remember when all we worried about was someone finding out what books we checked out of the library? On the other hand, we could be using digital signatures and encryption to place remote credit card orders that are far more secure than the phone orders we now place. We could create opt-out options on mailing lists that are more within our control than the voluntary methods now being used. Encrypted electronic mail could be more secure than a sealed envelope. And we could force credit card companies to make their records accessible, and amendable by us, their currently hapless objects. The government didn't always have the means to tap many of our conversations, and we can use encryption to regain that sense of privacy. Or we can let the NSA and FBI have even greater access to our conversations than they have ever had. The choice is ours. Electronic mail is faster and more reliable than traditional mail ever could be. Yet access to traditional mail is universal, and cheap. Access to electronic mail is expensive for many, and unavailable to some. It doesn't have to be this way. Increasingly, our government creates documents and data with computers, but makes them available only in person, and on paper. Electronic documents are available remotely, available instantaneously, are searchable and copyable, and don't waste physical resources. We can insist that documents be made available in electronic form. And we can insist that all citizens have reasonable access to those electronic documents, and the computers needed to access them. A surprisingly vast array of government documents and other resources are already available on-line. From the Library of Congress to the U.S. Census, we'll list a number of them, and point you to many others. We'll also talk about efforts, such as EDGAR (Securities and Exchange Commission filings) and JURIS (Supreme and state court decisions), to make available others, and we'll also describe some of the net-based organizations, such as TAP (the Taxpayer's Access Project) and CPSR (Computer Professionals For Social Responsibility), working toward those ends. Want to find out who is cosponsoring a particular Senate bill? Read a recent Supreme Court opinion? Send email to the president? It can all be done today. Want to read proposed legislation in your state legislature, or get email back from the White House? Not yet. Whether we'll be able to, and how soon, is up to us. As you use this guide, please keep a few things in mind. First, this is a first stab at a rather vast topic. We appreciate any corrections, additions, or other suggestions you might have. Our most frequently read email addresses are listed below. Second, keep in mind that gopher menus, ftp directories, and even gopher and ftp addresses, change. In the interests of making life easier, we've tried to point to the resources themselves, but it's a bunch of moving targets out there on the net. Nothing can really substitute for the activist learning to use archie, veronica, and other net tools to better find information for him- or herself. Toward that end, we've included a short bibliography of both on-line and printed works, as well as (of course) a pointer to a larger bibliography available on-line. In this document, we assume you have some basic familiarity with net resources, in particular with ftp and gopher. If not, there are a number of works recently published that are good resources, and a few are listed in the bibliography. There's one worth mentioning here by name - the EFF's Big Dummies Guide to the Net. Details of obtaining it are given in the bibliography. The Electronic Frontier Foundation foundation itself is described a bit below in section 3.2. We've gone into a bit more detail discussing listservs, because many people have access to electronic mail without having access to Internet resources (and therefore may not be able to get the Big Dummies Guide either). One word of advice, however. If this describes you, as you look through this document you'll see that there's every reason to get on the net, and hopefully you'll arrange for complete access soon. There are a number of commercial Internet providers across the country with rates comparable to, or less than, what you probably pay for cable television, and much more fun and useful. A word about the document itself. The current version is available for the asking from the authors (stc@panix.com, shabbir@panix.com). We hope by the next version to have a gopher of our own up somewhere. In the meantime, check the gophers of the organizations listed in section 3.2. There are two versions: Citizens_Guide_1.0.txt is in ASCII, and Citizens_Guide_1.0.ps is in PostScript. The ASCII version contains only two codes, and , for our screen captures. Permission to reproduce and distribute are granted; please see the copyright notice at the end of the document. 2. How to find our government Believe it or not, our government really is on the Internet. Agencies have placed large amounts of information onto archive sites on the Internet for ftp and gopher access. The difficulty here, as in most of the Internet, is in navigating and finding this information. Although most government agencies are on the net in the ".gov" subdomain, they aren't organized in a neat and orderly bureaucratic fashion. In the pages that follow, we'll highlight some of the high-profile agencies that people tend to look for as well as what you can find there. 2.1. Congress Congress is on the Internet. Does this mean you can send a 'talk' request to your legislator, or send them email directly? Not really, but legislators are only a small part of our Congress, which is also made up of bills, resolutions, directories, and the Congressional Record, much of which can be looked up on the Internet. 2.1.1. Finding legislation If you've ever tried to learn about a piece of legislation, you know that merely finding it can be daunting. First, you must find the bill number. Second, you must call and get a copy from either a legislator or the Capitol in Washington D.C. To learn about progress on the bill, you must subscribe to the Congressional Quarterly, the Federal Register, or constantly call the sponsoring legislators directly. If you're tracking a bill which is moving quickly, this last method will continue to be the most reliable. However there are many other ways in which you can find legislation, learn about its cosponsors, and track its progress and committee assignments while still online. One way of finding a piece of legislation is to use the legislative archives at locis.loc.gov which you can telnet to. Look under the "Federal Legislation" section. Alternatively, you could also call the legislator sponsoring the legislation. Explain to their staff that you have become interested in their legislation and would like a copy so you can read it. How to find the phone number of a legislator is the subject of the next section. In some cases, legislation is posted directly to the net, often by activist organizations. Additionally, businesses on the net are increasingly using gopher and ftp to make information available to employees, customers, and other interested parties. For example, bell.com is a new host created by the RBOCs. While rather sparse at the moment, there is an area for Government/Legislation. You can gopher or ftp to bell.com to look around. Presidential initiatives and proposed legislation finds its way on the net pretty easily as well. For example, both the Clinton health plan and the 1995 federal budget proposals were available on the net within hours of being released. In section 2.2 we talk about the White House mailing lists. 2.1.2. Finding legislators There are several ways of finding a legislator. It has been said before that the easiest way to find someone's email address is to phone them and ask them. This is much the same for finding your legislator. Usually the easiest way to find the name of your legislator is to call the League of Women Voters and ask them. In many states, the League of Women Voters staff a hotline where they will very helpfully look up your congressional district and legislators if you provide them with your address. But you can now use on-line resources to look this up. (In the section on state legislatures below, you'll see that the State of California has made it easy to look up State Senators and Representatives with gopher or finger. Hopefully, this will be done with Congress soon.) The second method of finding your legislator starts with obtaining the list of current Congressional legislators either through gopher or by ftp'ing to una.hh.lib.umich.edu:/socsci/poliscilaw/uslegi/congdir. The gopher at this site is very helpful, containing pointers to the LOCIS system (described above), the Legi-Slate system for searching the Federal Register, and a listing of committee assignments. Obtain the list of legislators that contains the category for your state, and look through the list. If you don't recognize the name of your legislator or your district, simply call any one of them listed in your state. Ask them if they are your legislator, and if not, can they tell you who is. Congressional legislators all have books with district listings that they use to identify their own constituents. Some legislators even have email addresses. However few give these out to anyone but constituents. Once again, the easiest way to find out a legislator's email address is to call and ask them. Some reserve email access only for their constituents, and will ask you to send them a postcard with your email address; they'll reply to you with theirs. 2.1.3. ftp.senate.gov The Senate maintains an ftp and gopher site on the Internet for Senators to place information for browsing. Here is the connection screen: ¨RM85ø Name (ftp.senate.gov:shabbir): ftp 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password. Password: 230- Welcome to the United States Senate's Anonymous FTP Server 230- (ftp.senate.gov). This service is provided by the Office of the 230- U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Senate Committee on Rules 230- and Administration. 230- 230- This server contains general information files about the United States 230- Senate in the directory "general". Directories are also provided for 230- specific Senators' offices, in alphabetical order by two-letter state 230- abbreviations, and for Senate committees and other Senate offices. If 230- an office is not included in the directory, this indicates no files 230- have been posted by that office. 230- 230- No files can be uploaded to this system. Please direct questions about 230- a specific Senate office's use of this service to the Senate office in 230- question. General inquiries not involving a specific Senate office can 230- be directed via Internet e-mail to: ftpadmin@scc.senate.gov 230- 230-Please read the file README 230- it was last modified on Mon Dec 6 17:05:19 1993 - 97 days ago 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. ftp> ¨RM75ø At this time, the Senate ftp site is not very heavily populated. However it wouldn't hurt to call or write your senator and ask them to place their own information into it. 2.1.4. hr.house.gov The House of Representatives gopher site is not well populated yet, but shows great potential. You can only get to it by going through the Library of Congress gopher at locis.loc.gov. 2.2. Whitehouse.gov You can send electronic mail to the President and Vice President at "PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV", and "VICE-PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV". One thing to keep in mind -- just as with any other form of communication, threats made to the President and Vice-president will be taken seriously. Recently a student who sent a death threat to president@whitehouse.gov through forged email was arrested. There are several email lists of White House information that you can subscribe to. Subscribing to all of them will result in dozens and dozens of messages each day. Press releases are generally received the same day they are released to the media. To find out more about signing onto these lists, check the following entry in Gumprecht's Guide: White House Electronic Publications and Public Access E-Mail -- Frequently Asked Questions: Provides information about how to receive electronic publications from the White House via e-mail and lists widely available electronic sources for White House information. Path: gopher ace.esusda.gov / americans communicating electronically / white house frequently asked questions (2/94). Since the Internet has become such as an effective method of disseminating information, many politicians have begun releasing their press conferences online. Several excellent examples of White House archives can be found in Gumprecht's guide: White House Information: Full text of major policy statements, daily press briefings, speeches, proclamations, the president's daily schedule and more. Path: gopher tamuts.tamu.edu / browse information by subject / political science / information from the white house (2/94). Path: gopher sunsite.unc.edu / worlds of sunsite / us and world politics / browse white house papers (2/94). Path: telnet sunsite.unc.edu / login:gopher / worlds of sunsite / us and world politics / browse white house papers (2/94). Here's the information about getting White House documents, snipped from the automated reply one gets to email sent to whitehouse.gov: ... we are proud to announce the Internet address for obtaining White House documents and publications. The address is: publications@whitehouse.gov To receive instructions, please send a message to publications@whitehouse.gov (**do not "reply" to the memo you are now reading**). In the body of your message, type "Send Info" (without quotes); no other text is necessary. The instructions will be sent to you automatically. All of us at the White House are excited about the progress that has been made with this historic project, and we look forward to future developments. Your continued interest and participation is very important to us. 2.3. Federal agencies There is an amazing number of government agencies on the net already. One has to wonder whether legislation ordering them to provide information on the Internet could have been as successful as the zeal with which many agencies have already acted. Here is a list of government agencies on the Internet. Again, this is only current as of this writing. For an up-to-date listing, consult Gumprecht's guide. AKDNRGIS.GOV AK Department of Natural Resources AMESLAB.GOV Ames Laboratory ANL.GOV Argonne National Laboratory AO.GOV Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts ARM.GOV Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories ARS-GRIN.GOV U.S. Department of Agriculture ARSERRC.GOV USDA-ARS-ERRC ARSUSDA.GOV U.S. Department of Agriculture BAAQMD.GOV Bay Area Air Quality Management District BLDRDOC.GOV National Institute of Standards and Technology BLM.GOV US DOI, Bureau of Land Management BLS.GOV BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS BNL.GOV Brookhaven National Laboratory CA.GOV State of California CAP.GOV Civil Air Patrol CBRFC.GOV Colorado Basin River Forecast Center CDC.GOV Center for Disease Control CEBAF.GOV Continuous Electronic Beam Acceleator Facility (SURA/CEBAF) CO.GOV Colorado SuperNet, Inc COR.GOV City of Richardson CSS.GOV Center for Seismic Studies DOE.GOV U.S. Department of Energy DOECHICAGO.GOV US Department of Energy Chicago Field Office DOED.GOV US Department of Education DOT.GOV United States Department of Transportation DSPO.GOV Los Alamos National Laboratory DVACM.GOV Department of Veterans Affairs EPA.GOV U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ERIE.GOV County of Erie ERL.GOV U.S. Department of Commerce ESUSDA.GOV USDA Cooperative Extension Service FAA.GOV Federal Aviation Adminstration FBI.GOV Federal Bureau of Investigation FCC.GOV Federal Communications Commission FDA.GOV Food and Drug Administration FJC.GOV Federal Judicial Center FMHA.GOV U.S. Department of Agriculture FNAL.GOV Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory FNC.GOV Federal Networking Council FRB.GOV Federal Reserve Board FRS.GOV Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta GFDL.GOV Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory HAWAII.GOV Hawaii State Government HCOM.GOV New York State Health Department HOUSE.GOV House Information Systems HPCC.GOV High Performance Computing and Communications IA.GOV Iowa State Government, Department of Public Safety INEL.GOV Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (EG&G) IRS.GOV Internal Revenue Service ITC.GOV Interagency Training Center JCCBI.GOV Federal Aviation Agency KIP-PPPL.GOV Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory KPL.GOV KALAMAZOO PUBLIC LIBRARY LA.GOV City of Los Angeles LANL.GOV Los Alamos National Laboratory LASTATE.GOV State of Lousiana LBL.GOV Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory LLNL.GOV Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LOC.GOV Library of Congress MCMURDO.GOV US Antarctic Research Base MD.GOV Maryland State Government MOCBHE.GOV Coordinating Board For Higher Education MOCONS.GOV Missouri Department of Conservation MS.GOV Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning MT.GOV State of Montana MTP.GOV Metrpolitan Toronto Police NALUSDA.GOV USDA National Agricultural Library NASA.GOV NASA Ames Research Center NC.GOV North Carolina State Government NCDCR.GOV NC Dept. of Cultural Resources NCIFCRF.GOV National Cancer Institute NCPC.GOV National Capital Planning Commission NCTNET.GOV National Center for Toxicological Research NERSC.GOV National Energy Research Supercomputer Center NIFL.GOV National Institute For Literacy NIH.GOV National Institutes of Health NIST.GOV National Institute of Standards and Technology NJCST.GOV New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology NMFECC.GOV National Energy Research Supercomputer Center NMFS.GOV National Marine Fisheries Service NOAA.GOV Alaska Fisheries Science Center NOAAPMEL.GOV National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NPFC.GOV National Pollution Funds Center NREL.GOV Solar Energy Research Institute NREL.GOV National Renewable Energy Laboratory NSF.GOV National Science Foundation NWS.GOV National Weather Service NYPA.GOV New York Power Authority NYSED.GOV New York State Education Department NYSLBD.GOV New York State Legislative Bill Drafting Commission OHIO.GOV Ohio Data Network OKGEOSURVEY1.GOV OKLAHOMA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OBSERVATORY OPPD.GOV Omaha Public Power District OR.GOV State of Oregon ORAU.GOV Oak Ridge Associated Universities ORNL.GOV Oak Ridge National Laboratory OSHA.GOV Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSMRE.GOV US Office of Surface Mining OSTI.GOV U.S. Department of Energy OTA.GOV United States Congress PIMA.GOV Pima County Engineering and Geographic Information Services PNL.GOV Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory PPPL.GOV Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory PSWFS.GOV USDA Forest Service- Pacific Southwest Research Station RCDP.GOV Ramsey County Data Processing RHILINET.GOV Rhilinet, Rhode Island Library Network RL.GOV For Department of Energy Richland S1.GOV Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory SANDIA.GOV Sandia National Laboratories SC.GOV Spartanburg County South Carolina SCHOHARIE.GOV Schoharie County SRS.GOV Westinghouse Savannah River Company SSA.GOV Social Security Administration SSC.GOV Super Conducting Super Collider Laboratory StPaul.GOV Public Works Computer Services TAHC.GOV TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION TEXAS.GOV State of Texas TVA.GOV Tennessee Valley Authority ULSTER.GOV Ulster County Information Services UNICOR.GOV UNICOR USBM-CCN.GOV U.S. Department of the Interior USBR.GOV U.S. Bureau of Reclamation USCGR.GOV U.S. Coast Guard Reserve USDA.GOV U.S. Dept of Agriculture USDOJ.GOV United States Department of Justice USGS.GOV United States Geological Survey USL.GOV Utah State Library Division USPS.GOV U.S. Postal Service USPTO.GOV United States Patent and Trademark Office UTAH.GOV State of Utah UTCOURTS.GOV Utah State Courts VA.GOV Veteran's Administration VADIT.GOV Department of Information Technology VOA.GOV Voice of America WA.GOV Washington State Governmental Offices WAPA.GOV Western Area Power Administration WISC.GOV Madison Academic Computing Center YMP.GOV Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) In addition, several government agencies run BBS'es (bulletin board systems) which can be dialed up to, but are not on the Internet. You can obtain a list of the by telnet'ing to cap.gwu.edu, and logging in as 'guest' with a password of 'visitor'. Look under the Federal Government menus, then the Communicating with Federal Officials menu. There you will find the List of Federal BBS'es. Remember these menu choices might have changed by the time you try this. Here are the first few BBS'es listed: U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration Office of Business Analysis (202) 482-1986 ================================================================== = The ECONOMIC BULLETIN BOARD ================================================================== = Bulletin 32: Government Bulletin Boards Last Updated: 05/25/93 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Department of Agriculture 1. Agricultural Library Forum (ALF) Voice Number: 301-504-5113 Data Number: 301-504-5496 Shown 10%, press for more, 'q' to quit, or 'h' for help Shown 10%, press for more, 'q' to quit, or 'h' for help Describes specific information products, such as "Quick Bibliographies" and "Special Reference Briefs" offered by the National Agricultural Library. 2. Human Nutrition Information Service BBS Voice Number: 301-436-8491 Data Number: 301-436-5078 Covers topics related to food and nutrition research. 3. Commercial Information Delivery Service (CIDS) Voice Number: 202-720-5505 Data Number: Must subscribe first CIDS contains government information about developments and statistics dealing with the agriculture industry. Bureau of the Census 1. Bureau of Economic Analysis BBS Voice Number: 301-763-7554 (contact John Rowe) Data Number: 301-763-7554 Shown 16%, press for more, 'q' to quit, or 'h' for help Contains business and industry information collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Offers trade opportunities also found on the Economic Bulletin Board. 2. State Data Center/Business-Industry Data Center Voice Number: 301-763-1580 Data Number: 301-763-7554 (9600 Baud) This BBS includes Bureau of the Census economic reports, geographic electronic mapping, and any press reports dealing with Census surveys. Public domain software is available which allows users to transfer any census data. 3. Census Bureau Personnel Vacancy Board Voice Number: 301-763-4950 Data Number: 301-763-4574 Posts all Census Bureau position vacancies. 4. Office Automation BBS Voice Number: 301-763-4950 Data Number: 301-763-4576 Shown 21%, press for more, 'q' to quit, or 'h' for help Lists all new technology dealing with office automation. Allows users to transfer messages. Department of Commerce 1. Economic Bulletin Board (EBB) Voice Number: 202-482-1986 Data Number: 202-482-3870 Provides current information on the U.S. economy and trade situation as released by Federal agencies, as well as trade leads from the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and USDOC's Eastern European Business Information Center. 2. Patent Licensing Bulletin Board (PLBB) Voice Number: 703-487-4650 Data Number: 703-487-4061 Assists companies in finding government-owned inventions from federal laboratories that are available for licensing. Summarizes each invention and gives supporting material. Shown 26%, press for more, 'q' to quit, or 'h' for help 3. Office of Budget Planning and Organization Bulletin Board Voice Number: 202-482-2949 Data Number: 202-482-1423 A communications and discussion forum for planning and budget issues of the U.S. Department of Commerce. 4. Climate Dialup Services (CDUS) Voice Number: 301-763-4670 Data Number: 301-899-0827 (300-1200 baud) 301-899-1173 (1200 baud) Fee-based bulletin board providing daily/weekly/monthly weather information collected by the National Weather Service. . . . 2.4. Courts Several state and federal courts have begun to make their decisions and opinions available online. Most notably, the gopher server at info.umd.edu has archived US Supreme Court opinions for the last several years. Here is a list of the available 1994 decisions available online at the time of this writing: Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 Term 1994 --> 1. Order List/ 2. abf freight vs. nlrb. 3. albright vs. oliver. 4. american dredging co. vs. miller. 5. federal depoist insurance corp vs. meyer. 6. hagen vs. utah. 7. liteky et al. vs. united states. 8. national organization of women vs. scheidler. 9. northwest air vs. michigan. 10. oregon revenue vs. acf industry. 11. ratzlaf vs. united states. 12. schiro vs. farley. 13. skyywalker et al. vs. acuffrose music. 14. thunder basin vs. reich. 15. weiss vs. united states. Gumprecht's guide contains many other pointers to archives of State and Federal Court decisions. There is also an entire hierarchy of newsgroups dedicated to those following the US Court system. These are all newsgroups beginning with courts.usa.*. If you subscribe to Usenet news, you can read these decisions as they are released. 2.5 State and Local Governments Activists are starting to encouraging their state and local governments to provide online information. In California, Jim Warren spearheaded a campaign to bring the California state government onto the net. AB 1624 (Chapter 1235/Statutes of 1993), authored by Assembly Member Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), required that legislative information be made available to the public "by way of the largest nonproprietary, non-profit cooperative public computer network." This phrase refers to the computer network known as Internet. Now, by using the gopher at sen.ca.gov, you can access services like the ones listed below: Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 Root gopher server: sen.ca.gov --> 1. How to discover information about the California State Legislature/ 2. About the California Legislature Gopher/ 3. California Penal Code Section 502. 4. California State Senate/ 5. California State Assembly/ 6. Access bill text and other information (at LDC)/ 7. Other California Agencies, Gophers, and Information/ 8. Other State Legislatures on the Internet/ 9. NCSL/NALIT -- Nat. Assoc. Legis. Info. Technologists/ 10. Congressional Gophers/ 11. Federal Information Servers/ 12. Information about Gopher and about the Internet/ 13. Other Gophers and Information Resources/ At this time, four other state governments are on the Internet, according to the California gopher mentioned above. These are: Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 Other State Legislatures on the Internet --> 1. About this list of other Gophers. 2. State of Hawaii 3. State of Maryland/ 4. The Minnesota House of Representatives/ 5. State of Utah/ There is currently a bill before the Washington state legislature similar to the California measure to move access to state government information online. You can find it with gopher at ftp.eff.org under Legislation/ Foreign_and_local/ WA/ Here is a pointer to the legislation: _______________________________________________ ENGROSSED SECOND SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6426 _______________________________________________ State of Washington 53rd Legislature 1994 Regular Session By Senate Committee on Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Sutherland, Ludwig, Talmadge, Quigley, Vognild, Williams, Owen, McCaslin, Amondson, Hochstatter, West, Erwin, Bauer, Pelz, A. Smith, Hargrove, Skratek and Oke) 3. Issues and answers There are a number of issues-oriented groups that have sprung up on the Internet, using it as their main method of communicating with their constituency. In the next section we'll show you how you can find them, as well as resources to research issues you may become interested in. Most of all, as you learn to navigate and find these Internet resources, you will be able to create your own. 3.1. Political net resources Resources for the political activist on the net are plentiful. As is the case with all Internet resources, finding them is the difficult part. 3.1.1. Email and Mailing lists Now that you have your Internet address, of course you can't imagine living without it, but it's important to remember that there are some people out there who don't have net accounts, and you may even need to contact them. If you are lucky, they belong to some network or on-line service that exchanges mail with the Internet. Almost all of the on-line services offer this feature now, though you should keep in mind that for subscribers of many of them, incoming mail messages aren't free. Another thing to keep in mind is that email address formats and conventions are not uniform among the various networks and services. Fortunately, there's a document that explains how to send mail across disparate networks, in particular, between the Internet and CompuServe, America On Line, MCImail, Fidonet, and many others. It is called the internetworking-guide, and can be found (among many other places) at: DISTRIBUTION (news) This list is posted monthly to Usenet newsgroups comp.mail.misc and news.newusers.questions. (mail) I maintain a growing list of subscribers who receive each monthly issue by electronic mail, and recommend this to anyone planning to redistribute the list on a regular basis. (FTP) Internet users can fetch this guide by anonymous FTP as ~ftp/pub/docs/ internetwork-mail-guide on Ra.MsState.Edu (130.18.80.10 or 130.18.96.37) [Courtesy of Frank W. Peters] (Listserv) Bitnet users can fetch this guide from the Listserv at UNMVM. Send mail to LISTSERV@UNMVM with blank subject and body consisting of the line "GET NETWORK GUIDE". [Courtesy of Art St. George] This document is maintained by the indefagitable Scott Yanoff. Mailing lists exist for every kind of political topic: censorship, computer privacy, fathers' rights, privatization of the communications infrastructure, non-monogamous relationships, and many more. Because any list of mailing lists becomes obsolete the minute it is published, we suggest several places where you can find a 'list of lists'. These lists of mailing lists act as a table of contents to net discussions. Here is how you can get a copy of the Internet list of lists: Welcome to the "List of lists." This is a listing of special interest group mailing lists available on the Internet. This file is available via anonymous ftp on ftp.nisc.sri.com in netinfo/interest-groups. A compressed version is available in netinfo/interest-groups.Z. It may also be obtained through e-mail by sending a message to mail-server@nisc.sri.com with "send netinfo/interest-groups" in the body of the message. A hardcopy, indexed version of this list is available from SRI International. For more information send a message to nisc@nisc.sri.com. There is a mailing-list for "List of lists" update notices. To get on this list (or to submit updates to existing mailing-lists or add new ones), send a message to interest-groups-request@nisc.sri.com. SRI makes every attempt to keep entries current. However, since information is provided by the list maintainers, some entries may be out of date. Remember that when you get onto a list that you are joining a conversation in progress. The current members of the list have been participating in a conversation for weeks, months, sometimes years, and as a newcomer you should be polite, courteous, and soft-spoken. On many lists it is usually polite to post a short biography (also known as a 'bio') that describes who you are and why you are interested in joining the list. After introducing yourself, it is usually a good idea to watch and observe the current conversation for a while. Just like being at a group discussion, you will find the rhythm of the lists' conversation and then it will be appropriate to post. Impolite list behavior consists of showing up on a list and immediately asking baited questions which invite emotional and irrational arguing (also known as 'flaming'). Nobody likes to read other peoples' petty arguments. Many lists are arranged around a certain set of pre-supposed principles, and the participants are trying to discuss issues using those principles as a foundation. Discussion of those principles may be inappropriate on that list, although there may be other places more appropriate to heated debate such as the talk.politics.* newsgroups discussed below. Keep in mind as well that some mailing lists are moderated, and the level of moderation varies. In some cases, mail is screened to see that it conforms to some simple criteria (such as limits on the length of a post). Other lists are moderated more strictly. In extreme cases a moderator will not pass on to the list certain posts, and might even include his or her own comments in some of the posts that are propagated to the list. One of the reasons that mailing lists are a valuable tool in themselves is because some people on the net don't have access to newsgroups, but do have access to Internet mail. Some Bitnet sites as well as commercial online services provide only mail access to the Internet, but not Usenet newsgroups. The only way people on these systems can participate in these discussions is through mailing lists. The process of subscribing to a list is not a complicated one, though it bears explanation. Below we'll show you how to properly sign up for a list and avoid making a fool of yourself in front of millions of people. Mailing lists can be maintained by hand, or by using software that automates much of the task. (These programs are often called "listservers.") If a mailing list is maintained by an individual, the usual way to subscribe is by sending a letter to xxx-request@yyy.zzz, where the list's actual address is xxx@yyy.zzz. Thus for example, to subscribe to sea-list@sea.org (a list of the Society For Electronic Access, an organization described below), you would send a message asking to become a subscriber to sea-list-request@sea.org. Since the message is going to be acted upon by a person, the exact wording of the request doesn't matter. Note that the one thing you don't want to do is send your subscribe message to sea-list@sea.org, since that will be read by all members of the list, instead of the one individual who maintains the list. Other lists are maintained by automated servers. In this case, one sends one's subscribe request to the software program itself, as it were. For example, to subscribe to the CPSR Worker-related issues mailing list, send email to "listserv@cpsr.org" with the word "subscribe cpsr-work" in the body of the message. Listservers usually also allow you to do things that couldn't be done with manually-maintained lists. For example, you can often set your subscribership to "digest" messages, which would allow you to receive a single message each day which would be a concatenation of the individual messages members send out. You can also suspend your membership, useful when going on vacation or traveling. Finally, the unsubscribe process is handled in an automated way. Just remember to send your unsubscribe message to the listserver, not the list itself. For example, to unsubscribe to the CPSR list described above, send email to "listserv@cpsr.org" with "unsubscribe cpsr-work" in the body of the message. If and when you forget the syntax of these commands, you can usually send a message containing the word HELP to the listserver. 3.1.2. Newsgroups Newsgroups are the widest distribution channel of the net. When mailing lists become too populated, they sometimes become newsgroups. Because the readership (and therefore, the number of voices) goes up when a mailing list becomes a newsgroup, this is sometimes viewed as a bad thing. The focus of the group can often dissipate. However, people often look in on a newsgroup, in a way that they don't with a mailing list (for example, it is impossible to look in on a mailing list without subscribing), and so messages are read by a much wider potential audience. (It is also easier to scan subject lines and skim messages in newsreader software than in mail software.) As with mail lists, there are two types of newsgroups: moderated and unmoderated. Moderated newsgroups have one or more 'moderators' who screen submissions for appropriateness. These moderators walk a fine line between censor and traffic cop. If they do their job well, the newsgroup discussions will flourish around the main topic of the newsgroup. If they do their job poorly, there will be little information of use in the newsgroup, which will either have no postings whatsoever, or many discussions which are so far off-topic that it is impossible to find anything of value amid the rest of the noise. Two excellent examples of newsgroups are the sci.crypt and talk.politics.crypto newsgroups. Both newsgroups are about cryptography, but sci.crypt deal with the science of cryptography, while talk.politics.crypto deals with the politics of cryptography. talk.politics.cryptography was created for the express purpose of diverting the political, off-topic discussions about the politics of cryptography that were cluttering up sci.crypt, making it difficult to find anything about the science of cryptography. In a sense, the entire 'talk.*' hierarchy was created as an outlet to provide an outlet for non-technical discussions that often find their way into the comp.*, sci.*, and rec.* hierarchies. Often people do post political information to non-political groups. If they are being polite though, they will set all 'follow-up' articles to point to the political group. This has the effect of alerting people in the technical newsgroups to important political information, while not starting a long, unwelcome discussion in the scientific newsgroup. Here is a fictitious example of a political post that might have appeared in sci.crypt and talk.politics.crypto, with the 'follow-up' set to continue the discussion only in talk.politics.crypto: From sci.crypt Sun Aug 1 23:19:21 1993 Path: panix!news.intercon.com!udel!darwin.sura.net!sternlight From: sternlight@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu Newsgroups: sci.crypt, talk.politics.crypto Subject: SKIPJACK Review, Interim Report Message-ID: <1993Aug1.220927.4510@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu> Date: 1 Aug 93 22:09:27 -0400 Distribution: world Followup-to: talk.politics.crypto Organization: Georgetown University Lines: 369 SKIPJACK Review Interim Report The SKIPJACK Algorithm Ernest F. Brickell, Sandia National Laboratories Dorothy E. Denning, Georgetown University Stephen T. Kent, BBN Communications Corporation David Sternlight, National Security Agency .. .. .. One newsgroup (also a mailing list) that is so important that its worth a specific mention is the comp.risks newsgroup. For more information on subscribing to comp.risks as either an email list or a newsgroup, follow the directions below: The RISKS Forum is a moderated digest. Its USENET equivalent is comp.risks. Undigestifiers are available throughout the Internet, but not from RISKS. SUBSCRIPTIONS: PLEASE read RISKS as a newsgroup on your system, if possible and convenient for you. BITNET folks may use a LISTSERV (e.g., LISTSERV@UGA) with SUBSCRIBE RISKS or UNSUBSCRIBE RISKS as needed. Users on US Military and Government machines should contact (Dennis Rears). UK subscribers please contact . Local redistribution services are provided at many other sites as well. Check FIRST with your local system or netnews wizards. If that does not work, send requests to (not automated). CONTRIBUTIONS: to risks@csl.sri.com, with appropriate, substantive Subject: line, otherwise they may be ignored. Must be relevant, sound, in good taste, objective, cogent, coherent, concise, and nonrepetitious. Diversity is welcome, but not personal attacks. PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE ENTIRE PREVIOUS MESSAGES in responses to them. Contributions will not be ACKed; the load is too great. **PLEASE** include your name & legitimate Internet FROM: address, especially from .UUCP and .BITNET folks. Anonymized mail is not accepted. ALL CONTRIBUTIONS CONSIDERED AS PERSONAL COMMENTS; USUAL DISCLAIMERS APPLY. Relevant contributions may appear in the RISKS section of regular issues of ACM SIGSOFT's SOFTWARE ENGINEERING NOTES, unless you state otherwise. 3.1.3. FTP FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the most basic method of obtaining and exchanging information. When someone wants to share their information with the rest of the Internet, they configue their Internet-connected machine as an 'anonymous ftp' site. This means that anyone on the Internet can come and retrieve files from the 'public' area in their system without having to have a password, or having been previously granted access to that system by the system administrator. For basic information about using FTP, see the Big Dummies Guide to the Internet. One of the most useful political resources on the net is the EFF FTP site. It contains information, copies of bills and speeches, articles, as well as legislative alerts about important legislation and issues related to the topics the EFF concentrates on, such as computer privacy and the First Amendment. Once you know where an ftp site is, feel free to browse it. Of course, like all Internet resources, finding them is really the hard part. The tools, archie and gopher, are useful in finding information on the net. For more information about archie, see the BDGTTI. 3.1.3. Gophers Another way that people make information available to the net is through gopher. Gopher is a menu-based system that can be used to arrange information in a user-friendly way that takes a lot of the work out of finding information on the net. There are several useful political gopher resources. The first is the LOCIS system we discussed previously at locis.loc.gov. Another useful gopher server is the one from 'Americans Communicating Electronically' (ACE) at cyfer.esusda.gov. In this gopher, you can find a copy of the entire federal budget for 1995, or the full text of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Previously such document were only available in summary form through newspapers. The effort required to track such information down through the bureaucracy was daunting enough that few people, apart from legislators and policy wonks, would ever attempt it. Now these documents are available online to you. There are many other useful gopher servers that can be found through the ACE gopher. Here is a sample screen snapshot of a few of them: ¨RM80ø 1. About this list. --> 2. Extension Service, USDA/ 3. Federal Info Exchange (FEDIX)/ 4. Government in General (maintained by UCI)/ 5. LANL Physics Information Service/ 6. Library of Congress MARVEL/ 7. National Aeronautics and Space Administration/ 8. National Coordination Office for HPCC (NCO/HPCC) Gopher/ 9. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/ 10. National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ 11. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/ 12. National Science Foundation (NSF)/ 13. Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) Environmental Sciences Division (ESD../ 14. Protein Data Bank - Brookhaven National Lab/ 15. U.S. Dept. of Education (ED) Office of Educational Research and Im../ 16. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)/ 17. U.S. Geological Survey/ 18. USDA National Agricultural Library Plant Genome/ ¨RM70ø 3.1.4. Library of congress The Library of Congress Information System (LOCIS) at marvel.loc.gov has lots of useful information. It was mentioned earlier in this document. Here is a copy of its top page: Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 Root gopher server: marvel.loc.gov --> 1. About LC MARVEL (Please Read First)/ 2. Library of Congress: Facilities, Activities, and Services/ 3. Research and Reference/ 4. Library of Congress Online Systems/ 5. The U.S. Congress/ 6. Federal Government Information/ 7. Services to Libraries and Publishers/ 8. Copyright/ 9. Employee Information/ 10. The Global Electronic Library (by Subject)/ 11. Internet Resources/ 12. What's New on LC MARVEL/ 13. Search LC MARVEL Menus/ Yet another useful place to find information on almost anything is in gopher Jewels. This is a collection of the very best pointers to information on other gopher servers. You can access it by connecting via gopher to riceinfo.rice.edu. Here is the first of 19 menu pages under Government, Political Science, & Law: Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 Government, Political Science and Law --> 1. About this directory. 2. "Conical" list of government online service (WWW) 3. A list of law related Internet resources by Mary Jensen. 4. Abortion and Reproductive Rights/ 5. About the Iowa Political Stock Market (IPSM). 6. Addressing Mail to Congress. 7. Alleged Instances of Censorship. 8. Alt.drugs FAQ archive at milton.u.washington.edu/ 9. American Political Science Association/ 10. Americans Communicating Electronically (ACE)/ 11. Americans With Disabilities Act/ 12. Americans with Disabilities Act. 13. An (almost) complete Privacy Toolkit, by Robert Luhn. 14. Australian Law Documents/ 15. Banned Computer Material of 1991. 16. Barlow: Decrypting the Puzzle Palace. 17. Bibliography of Senate Hearings, McGeachy/ 18. Bill of Rights Status Report. By the time you access these gophers, the menus will probably have changed. However the locations of these gophers will probably remain the same, and you can use them to find the most up-to-date useful Federal information. 3.1.5. Gumprecht's, Yanoff's, and December's lists As you can see, there is a distinct trend towards finding archivists of information, as opposed to the actual information themselves. Three of the most useful lists of Federal Information and Internet services are provided by three individuals on the net: - Blake Gumprecht, a document librarian at Temple University, and author of the 'Internet Sources of Government Information' - Scott Yanoff, author of 'Yanoff's list' - John December, author of the 'December's list' These lists, with their innocuous sounding names, are some of the most useful pieces of information on the net. Acting as pointers to other services, they provide the net activist with an immensely useful supply of information. Here is an example of some useful Federal information you might find in Gumprecht's list: U.S. Government Gophers: Provides one stop access to nearly 100 U.S. government Gopher systems. Path: gopher peg.cwis.uci.edu / individuals' information sources / cjboyer / gopher.welcome / peg / gophers / united states government gophers (2/94). Here is the first of seven pages of the top level menu from the 'one stop access' point mentioned above: Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 United States GOVERNMENT Gophers --> 1. Call for assistance.... 2. POLITICS and GOVERNMENT/ 3. Definition of a "United States Government Gopher". 4. Federal Government Information (via Library of Congress)/ 5. LEGI-SLATE Gopher Service (via UMN)/ / 6. AVES: Bird Related Information/ 7. Americans Communicating Electronically/ 8. Arkansas-Red River Forecast Center (NOAA)/ 9. AskERIC - (Educational Resources Information Center)/ 10. CYFERNet USDA Children Youth Family Education Research Network/ 11. Co-operative Human Linkage Center (CHLC) Gopher/ 12. Comprehensive Epidemiological Data Resource (CEDR) Gopher/ 13. ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Math, Environmental (OSU)/ 14. ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation/ 15. ESnet Information Services Gopher/ 16. Electronic Government Information Service/ 17. Environment, Safety & Health (USDE) Gopher/ 18. Environmental Protection Agency/ 3.1.5 Net Legal Resources An excellent document covering legal resources on the net is the 'Net Legal Resources' document. You can find it with gopher at ftp.eff.org in the Activism_Legal_Govt section. Here is the first few lines of the document: ______________ The Legal List ______________ Law-related Resources on the Internet and Elsewhere ______________ by Erik J. Heels Version 3.0, 17 Jan 94 Copyright (c) 1994 Erik J. Heels Earlier Versions Copyright (c) 1992, 1993 Erik J. Heels ... 3. E-MAIL-ACCESSIBLE RESOURCES 3.1. ORGANIZATIONS AND MEETINGS 3.1.1. AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION 3.1.1.1. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SECTION 3.1.1.2. SECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW 3.1.2. CENTER FOR COMPUTER LAW 3.1.3. COALITION FOR NETWORKED INFORMATION 3.1.4. COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 3.1.5. COMPUTER SYSTEMS POLICY PROJECT 3.1.6. CONFERENCE ON COMPUTERS, FREEDOM, AND PRIVACY 3.1.7. INTERNATIONAL LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION 3.1.8. LEGAL INFORMATION INSTITUTE - E-BULLETIN 3.1.9. PEACENET WORLD NEWS SERVICE 3.1.10. SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION 3.1.11. UNIV. OF DAYTON - SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS IN COMPUTER LAW 3.1.12. U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 3.1.13. U.S. SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY & THE LAW 3.1.14. THE WHITE HOUSE 3.2. LAW SCHOOLS .. .. .. 3.2. Activists on the net Discussing activist magazines should whet the reader's appetite for contacting other activists. Here are a few organizations prominent on the Internet. CPSR: Computer Professions for Social Responsibility CPSR.ORG Contact points, various services: write to listserv@cpsr.org with a message that says: HELP the subject line will be ignored. ********************************************************** ************** COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ********************************************************** ************** The mission of CPSR is to provide the public and policymakers with realistic assessments of the power, promise, and problems of information technology. As concerned citizens, CPSR members work to direct public attention to critical choices concerning the applications of information technology and how those choices affect society. Founded in 1981 by a group of computer scientists concerned about the use of computers in nuclear weapons systems, CPSR has grown into a national public-interest alliance of information technology professionals and other people. Currently, CPSR has 22 chapters in the U.S. and affiliations with similar groups worldwide. In addition to our National Office in Palo Alto, California, we maintain an office in Washington, D.C. Every project we undertake is based on five principles: o We foster and support public discussion of, and meaningful involvement in, decisions critical to society. o We work to correct misinformation while providing understandable and factual analyses about the impact of societal technology. o We challenge the assumption that technology alone can solve political and social problems. o We critically examine social and technical issues within the computer profession, both nationally and internationally. o We encourage the use of information technology to improve the quality of life. 3.2.2. EFF The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was founded in July of 1990 to ensure that the principles embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are protected as new communications technologies emerge. The Electronic Frontier Foundation 1001 G Street NW, Suite 950 E Washington DC 20001 USA +1 202 347 5400 (voice) +1 202 393 5509 (fax) ask@eff.org 3.2.3. TAP TAP (the Taxpayer Assets Project) is too modest to post their mission statement anywhere in their archive at cpsr.org. Their primary concern is to bring taxpayer assets (such as government publications and databases) online. One such database, EDGAR, contains all SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filings of public corporations. Since your tax dollars go into archiving these documents, TAP believes you should have access to them online. If you want more information about TAP and TAP's current projects, write to the address below, which is the meager amount of contact information they provided in their archive: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Taxpayer Assets Project, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036; v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: tap@essential.org ------------------------------------------------------------------ tap-info postings are archived at cspr.org. ftp: ftp.cpsr.org; gopher: gopher.cpsr.org; wais: wais.cspr.org To receive tap-info, send a note to tap-info-request@essential.org 3.2.4. SEA The SEA (Society for Electronic Access) has a well-organized gopher server which contains much valuable information. Below is the top page of their gopher server, as well as the General Information file contained within. To access it, use the gopher server at gopher.panix.com and follow the pointers to the SEA menu item. Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 Root gopher server: gopher.sea.org --> 1. General Information about the SEA (who are we?). 2. Membership in the SEA. 3. SEA Bylaws. 4. Announcements/ 5. E-Mail Archives/ 6. Government and Politics/ 7. Internet Disk/ 8. List of U.S. Government BBSs. 9. Meeting Minutes/ 10. Nysernet's NY State and Federal Info/ 11. SEA EFFector Article. 12. SUNY Stony Brook's list of legislators/ 13. Telecom Law Information/ 14. Update on SEA Activities - Oct 1, 1993. The Society for Electronic Access (SEA) General Information STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The purpose of SEA is to help make our corner of the digital world a civilized place to live, work and visit. We believe that the world of computers and the communications links that bind their users together ("cyberspace") should be open to everyone. Furthermore, if this new medium is to have a chance of fulfilling its great potential, the same civil rights that protect our freedom in the physical world must prevail in cyberspace. Therefore SEA will work to educate people about computer networks and how to use them to find information and to communicate with one another. We will also reach out to foster better understanding of cyberspace and to ensure that individual rights are fully respected in this new medium, as befits a democratic society. Finally, we will do our best to bring into cyberspace those who might not otherwise have the opportunity or awareness to make use of it, in the belief that doing so will enrich our lives as well as theirs. Please mail to sea-list-request@sea.org for additions to and deletion from the sea-list mailing list. ObDisclaimer: One of the authors of this document is a director of the SEA. 3.2.5. Voters Telecomm Watch (VTW) The Voters Telecomm Watch is a legislatively-oriented group concerned with telecommunications and civil liberties. They have a gopher at gopher.vtw.org. Here is their Statement of Purpose: The business of our public and private lives is increasingly conducted electronically, changing our society at an unprecedented rate. The window of opportunity for protecting individual liberties is rapidly closing. New technologies require deliberate safeguards of individuals' electronic freedom and privacy. We actively participate in the democratic and legislative processes to promote civil liberties in telecommunications through several means: . Recommend legislation. . Monitor the positions and voting records of elected officials. . Inform and alert the public. . Assist and organize other grass-roots activists. 4. How to talk to our government Quite often people on the net make the mistake of assuming that since they have made it onto the net, their government has also made themselves available for communication on the net as well. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although the Clinton administration, at the behest of Vice President Al Gore, has dragged the Whitehouse kicking and screaming onto the Infobahn, the 29 cent stamped letter is still the most effective and credible ways of communicating with your government. The franked envelope is still the most common form of reply you will receive, even from those enlightened congress- people who are (experimentally) on the net. However this is not a lost cause. Remember that US legislators are probably experts at dealing with huge volumes of mail. No other form of government in the world encourages its citizenry to communicate with its elected representatives. The president literally receives hundreds of pounds of paper mail every week. Elected officials sometimes gauge public support by physically weighing piles of mail, sorted into 'pro' and 'con' piles. Electronic mail has a number of advantages. First, it's cheaper and faster than paper mail. Second, it's environmentally more sound than paper mail. Unfortunately many legislators have not yet realized these benefits. There's a few things you can do to change this. In the paragraphs below, we'll talk about who you can communicate with, how you can encourage them to continue this communication, and especially how to convince reluctant legislators to join the world of constituent email. 4.1 Email Two organizations, CPSR and EFF, have begun to provide email gateway to legislators on important issues such as the Clipper Chip and cryptography exports. By mailing to an address, such as cantwell@eff.org, you can show your support for the Cantwell cryptographic export bill (H.R. 3627). Your letter of support will be printed out and delivered to Rep. Maria Cantwell. CPSR is also currently running a Clipper Chip petition email address. Mail to this address was printed and sent to the White House. Within the first few weeks of it being active, it received over 50,000 signatures. 4.1. Fax In the sections above, we described how to find a legislator's address and phone number through the gopher at the University of Michigan. The same list contains each legislator's fax number. Purchasing a fax modem is probably the best thing a budding net activist can do. It allows you to reach large amounts of legislators with well-formatted letters with a minimum of fuss. 4.1.1 Faxing w/out a fax machine There is currently a email-to-fax project underway on the Internet. By sending mail to specific email address, your email will be transferred to a server which will fax your request to another fax machine. Although the details are too involved to explain here, you can obtain a tutorial document by sending email to tpc-faq@radio.com. Currently there are some restrictions on using this service for Congressional fax numbers. 5. The media online You'd be surprised to learn how many traditional media sources have gotten onto the Internet. Television stations, newspapers, and radio programs have all joined the new electronic media journalists such as John McMullen. In recent years, the fax machine has become the low-cost tool of dissemination for many activist groups. The Internet is faster and cheaper. 5.1 Contacting the media The best list of sources of traditional media on the Internet net we've found so far is available from world.std.com. Here's a blurb about the list and how to subscribe: THE MEDIA LIST, 5/2/94 This is a listing of new entries or corrections for the Media List, a compilation of newspapers, magazines, TV stations and other media outlets that accept electronic submissions from readers, listeners and viewers, along with their e-mail addresses. Because this list has gotten fairly large, only changes to it will be posted on a regular basis. You can always find a complete copy of the list via ftp at ftp.std.com as customers/periodicals/Middlesex-News/medialist. If you'd rather receive the list and updates automatically via e-mail, write to majordomo@world.std.com Leave the "subject:" line blank. As your message, write: subscribe medialist 5.2 More media sources on the net Several magazines and newspapers have joined the Electronic Newsstand, a gopher site at gopher.internet.com. The Electronic. Newsstand contains partial archives of its subscribers issues and special subscription information. If you're looking for a particular article and don't feel like going down to the library, you might find it here. Pictures and covers are scanned as well. The Electronic Newsstand currently has 91 titles. Here is a sample of titles from the Newsstand: Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 All Titles Listed Alphabetically --> 37. Maclean's/ 38. Midrange Computing/ 39. Museums New York/ 40. National Review/ 41. New Age Journal/ 42. New Perspectives Quarterly/ 43. New Republic, The/ 44. New Yorker, The/ 45. Out Magazine/ 46. Outside Magazine/ 47. PC Novice/ 48. PC Today/ 49. Policy Review/ 50. Reason Magazine/ 51. Reviews in American History/ 52. Rozek's/ 53. Saturday Night/ 54. Scientist, The/ There are other magazines that have gone farther than the Electronic Newstand. Mother Jones, for example, has a net address (backtalk@mojones.com) as well as a gopher server. You can connect to the Mother Jones gopher server and read back issues of the magazine. Here is the top menu page from their gopher server: Internet Gopher Information Client 2.0 pl8 Root gopher server: mojones.com 1. JA93/ 2. JF93/ 3. JF94/ 4. MA93/ 5. MA94/ 6. MJ93/ --> 7. MotherJones_Info. 8. ND93/ 9. SO93/ The Utne Reader is another important paper resource for progressive activists. While there is much more that they can, and presumably will, do to bring their journal into the electronic world, they have begun the work of tying their 'salon' into email mailing lists. Send mail to salons@utnereader.com for more info. There are other magazines on-line that are not available to the Internet (yet?). For example, Time Magazine recently debuted their on-line version on America On Line. U.S. News and World Report has a particularly nice on- line version of its magazine on Compuserve (??) Reportedly, The New York Times will be on-line sometime in mid-1994. And it would be surprising if we didn't find any of the Murdoch/News Corporation newspapers on-line, since they bought Delphi, one of the major on-line services, last year. 5.3 Media newsgroups Several publications have their own Usenet newsgroups. People usually discuss issues topical to the publication in these groups. Wired and 2600 both have newsgroups (alt.wired and alt.2600) dedicated to them. 6. Where to go from here Socrates once said, 'The only thing I know is how little I know.' As you learn more about what is on the net, you will learn more about what isn't on the net. If you want to develop a resource for other people to use, start digging and make sure it hasn't already been provided by someone else. Secondly, ensure that when you put it together it gets listed. Whether you want to run a gopher server, an ftp site, an off- Internet BBS, you'll need to have a place on the Internet to house it. Start by asking other organizations with similar interests. One good example is the CPSR archive at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's archive at ftp.eff.org. That is an example of a well-organized archive that covers the work of many related groups. If you have or know of a good resource that should be mentioned in this guide, please send us mail at: stc@panix.com shabbir@panix.com Copyright (c) 1994 by the authors. Permission is granted to reproduce this document entirely or in part, as long as done without any charges except the approximate costs of reproduction. The authors are not responsible for the accuracy of excerpts, or even the continued accuracy of the original work as time changes all things, but especially the location of stuff on the Internet. 7. Appendix of important documents Big Dummies Guide Internetworking Guide Net Legal Resources Law Research FAQ The Medialist from World.Std.Com Gumprechts, Yanoffs, and Decembers Lists US Congress lists from UMich PDIAL (Public Access Dialins to the Internet) White House FAQ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This document is from the Politics section of the WELL gopher server: gopher://gopher.well.com/11/Politics/ Questions and comments to gopher@well.com .