Online Civil LIberties Activism Organizations List, Ver. 11.8 ============================================================= Outposts on the Electronic Frontier - international, national, regional & local groups supporting the online community's rights to privacy and intellectual freedom. PART 3 An ACTION/EFF FAQ by Stanton McCandlish Updated: Jan. 21, 1997 Archived at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Activism/activ_groups.faq See also http://www.eff.org/pub/Activism/activ_resource.faq, the Online Activism Resources List. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Center for Civic Networking (CCN/CivicNet) The Center for Civic Networking is a non-profit organization, based in Boston and Washington, D.C., that promotes broad public benefits of the emerging national information infrastructure. The Center brings together expertise in large-scale computer and network systems, community-based applications of computing, non- profit management, community development, architecture, public policy, and democratic participation. The Center's Programs focus on framing a national vision for civic networking, developing a policy framework that supports civic networking, developing and supporting model civic networking projects, and assisting in the technology transfer needed to achieve the broad- based benefits of civic networking. CCN is involved with SDIN network, the Cambridge Civic Forum, and the "From Townhalls to Local Civic Networks" conference, and ACE. General: Miles Fidelman , Exec. Dir. Richard Civille , Dir., DC office FTP: world.std.com, ftp/amo/civicnet ftp.eff.org, pub/Groups/CCN Gopher: gopher.std.com, 1/associations/civicnet gopher.eff.org, 1/Groups/CCN WWW: gopher://gopher.std.com:70/11/associations/civicnet http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/CCN/ Voice: +1 202 362 3831 (R. Civille, Washington DC office) * Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) CDT is a non-profit, public interest organization. The mission of CDT is to develop public policy solutions that advance constitutional civil liberties and democratic values in new computer and communications media. The Center will pursue its mission through policy research, public education, and coalition building. The Center will marshal legal, technical, and public policy expertise on behalf of civil liberties goals, including: maximizing free speech and the free flow of information online, giving citizens more control over personal information, protecting privacy online, and guaranteeing public access to electronic government information. Info: info@cdt.org General: ask@cdt.org FTP: ftp.cdt.org, /pub/cdt/ Gopher: gopher.eff.org, 1/Groups/CDT (not full archive; see FTP/WWW sites.) WWW: http://www.cdt.org/ Voice: +1 202 637 9800 Fax: +1 202 637 0968 Snail: 1001 G St. NW, Ste. 700E Washington DC 20001 USA * Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) A Los Angeles-based non-profit, research organization which works to improve the processes of media and democratic governance. In 1989 the Center launched The California Channel, the nation's first "state C-SPAN" now available to over 4 million California homes. With the Babcock, Carnegie, Cummings, Gerbode and Irvine foundations, CGS initiated the Democracy Network, a plan for an interactive network/station for the NII that will allow voters, through their TV sets or computers to access information on demand from political candidates and ballot measure committees, and to talk with candidates and voters in an electronic town hall, to increase voter participation, decrease campaign costs, encourage candidates to devote more attention to substantive issues, and demonstrate to elected officials the value of incorporating free voter information into the new definition of "universal service." General: dnetcgs@aol.com Voice: +1 310 470 6590 Fax: +1 310 475 3752 Snail: 10951 West Pico Blvd., Suite 206 Los Angeles CA 90064 USA * Center for Study of Responsive Law (CSRL) Umbrella organization for TAP and CPT (see separate entries). CSRL is a nonprofit Ralph Nader organization that supports and conducts a wide variety of research and educational projects to encourage the political, economic and social institutions of this country to be more aware of the needs of the citizen-consumer. The Center publishes a variety of reports on a number of public interest issues. General: csrl@csrl.org (Janice Shields) FTP: csrl.org, /pub/csrl/ Gopher: gopher.csrl.org, 1/ftp/pub/csrl WWW: http://csrl.org/csrl/csrl.html gopher://gopher.csrl.org/11/ftp/pub/csrl Snail: PO Box 19367 Washington DC 20036 USA Voice: +1 202 387 8034 * Citizens' Government Watch Committee (CGWC) [no info available, other than it's based in San Diego CA, and the PR Dir. is Lawrence Ludlow.] * Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) - HEIRAlliance (See Higher Education Information Resources Alliance for more info.) * Commercial Internet eXchange Association (CIX) A trade association of Internet service providers. Besides representing industry interests, CIX has taken firm stances against Internet censorship and regulation bills, and has issued a number of white papers and other documents on these subjects. [NB: Membership is expensive, and intended for corporations, not individuals. This may not be a group for the activist to join, but may well be one to keep in touch with.] General: helpdesk@cix.org FTP: ftp.cix.org (not as much available here as at WWW site) WWW: http://www.cix.org Snail: 1035 Sterling Rd., Ste. 201 Herndon, VA 22070 Voice: +1 703 824 9249 * Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) CPSR is a national membership organization, based in Palo Alto, California. CPSR conducts many activities to protect privacy and civil liberties. Membership is open to the public and support is welcome. CPSR maintains 24 local chapters in the US, and has several international affiliates. CPSR hosts several mailing lists, including cpsr-cpu (CPSR's "CPU" newsletter for informa- tion technology workers), cpsr-announce (CPSR's general news and announcements list, gated to Usenet newsgroup comp.org.cpsr.announce), and bawit-announce (Bay Area Women & Information Technology working group announcements), cyber-rights (Cyber-Rights Campaign) among others. CPSR sponsors an annual conference, maintains a large internet archive site of information, and sponsors working groups on civil liberties and other issues. In 1995, CPSR started a Cyber-Rights Campaign. General (nat'l. HQ): cpsr@csli.stanford.edu Washington DC chapter: Larry Hunter NY chapter: David Friedlander Berkeley CA chapter: Karen Coyle Palo Alto CA chapter: Andre Bacard Portland OR chapter: Erik Nilsson Los Angeles chapter: Rodney J. Hoffman Mailing lists: listserv@cpsr.org, message body: "subscribe " FTP: ftp.cpsr.org, /cpsr Cyber-Rights Campaign FTP: jasper.ora.com, /pub/andyo/cyber-rights/CYBER-RIGHTS/ ftp.iol.ie, /users/rkmoore Gopher: gopher.cpsr.org, 1/cpsr WWW: http://www.cpsr.org/home Cyber-Rights Campaign WWW: http://jasper.ora.com/andyo/cyber-rights/cyber-rights.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~hwh6k/public/cyber-rights.html ftp://jasper.ora.com/pub/andyo/cyber-rights/CYBER-RIGHTS/ ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore UseNet: comp.org.cpsr.talk, comp.org.cpsr.announce Nanotechnology SIG: Ted Kaehler Electoral issues: Eva Waskell, voice: +1 703 435 1283 evenings Snail: CPSR National Office CPSR/Berkeley P.O. Box 717 SE P.O. Box 40361 Palo Alto CA 94302 USA Berkeley CA 94704 USA Voice: +1 415 322 3778 +1 415 398 2818 Fax: +1 415 322 3798 * Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Through computer networking, the Consortium will help educators and students access information and communications resources that will increase their productivity, professional competence, and opportunities for learning and collaborative work. The Consortium advocates the following goals: the timely deployment of the national research and education network; the development and distribution of network-based information resources for schools; the development of the human resources needed to make full and efficient use of networks through staff development programs, educational materials and software; form a national leadership group for educational telecommunications, to have a voice in shaping policy in this area; provide access to information about the National Research and Education Network (NREN) and other educational telecommunications efforts; reach a large community of individuals involved in every aspect of network technology and its application to K-12 education; help advance the development of information resources and tools for networking; foster collaborative opportunities to develop new resources and services for educators. CoSN is a non-profit organization, 501(c)(3) application pending. [like GSN, CoSN is likely to be an opponent of censorship and privacy-invasion efforts on the part of the government and may be good ally, despite their focus on educational institution issues.] General: cosn@bitnic.bitnet, cosn%bitnic@cunyvm.cuny.edu Gopher: digital.cosn.org Snail: P.O. Box 6519 Washington DC 20035-5193 USA Voice: +1 202 466 6296 Fax: +1 202 872 4318 * Consumer Project on Technology (CPT) was created by Ralph Nader in 1995. CPT focuses on a variety of issues, including telecommunications regulation, media concentration, pricing of ISDN services by telephone companies, fair use under the copyright law, the Intellectual Property Rights for pharmaceutical drugs under the GATT, and issues pertaining to Microsoft Windows' 95. We are also engaged in some work on peronsal privacy and health care records. CPT is run by James Love, who also runs the Taxpayer Assets Project. CPT is currently involved in efforts to require Bell Atlantic to offer flat rate tariffs for ISDN services, and opposing medical records "privacy" legislation that would severely threaten privacy interests. Like TAP, CPT is a project of the Center for Study of Responsive Law. General: love@tap.org WWW: http://essential.org/cpt Snail: P.O. Box 19367 Washington DC 20036 USA Voice: +1 202 387 8030 Fax: +1 202 234 5176 * Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) A non-profit research and development organization formed in 1986 to help focus U.S. strengths in information processing technology. Working with industry, government, and academia, CNRI is engaged in scientific research on the design of experimental infrastructure which can improve the country's long-range scientific and engineering productivity. CNRI organizes multi-party collaborative research activities among U.S. government, business and academic organizations. An experimental information infrastructure will provide an important basis for joint university/industry research and facilitate rapid transfer of advanced scientific concepts and technology between research groups and also into experimental applications. General: info@cnri.reston.va.us Gopher: ietf.cnri.reston.va.us, 1/CNRI Information WWW: gopher://ietf.cnri.reston.va.us:70/11/CNRI%20Information Snail: 895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100 Reston, VA 22091 Voice: +1 703 620 8990 * Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN) Despite the name, this is a non-profit organization. CREN advances the goals of institutions of higher education by facilitating, catalyzing and leveraging contributions from the worldwide higher education community directed toward building a global computing and communications infrastructure that: supports access to shared information services and resources; supports scholarly collaboration and educational outreach; and contributes to enhanced individual and institutional productivity. CREN provides BITNET (and thus Internet email) access to member institutions, and is also working on NII issues, hoping to help ensure that such a future network provides for the needs of the educational and research communities. As of Nov. 1995, CREN is also providing cheap local-call Internet access to members in 100 US cities. General: bitnet@cren.net ftp: info.cren.net, cren.org gopher: info.cren.net Snail: 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20036 USA Voice: +1 202 872 4200 * Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) A non-profit public interest membership organization, working to protect individual rights in the emerging information age. EFF supports legal and legislative action to protect the civil liberties of online users; hosts and participates in related conferences and projects, including Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet, and Computers and Academic Freedom; and works to educate the online community about its legal rights and responsibilities. EFF members receive online bulletins about the critical issues and debates affecting computer-mediated communications and participate in online political activism. Donations are welcome and are tax deductible. EFF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Basic info: info@eff.org General: ask@eff.org Membership: membership@eff.org Legal/Press: Mike Godwin , Staff Counsel Shari Steele , Staff Counsel Online services: Stanton McCandlish , Online Activist Hardcopy publications: pubs@eff.org Mailing list requests: listserv@eff.org (message of "HELP" or "LONGINDEX") FTP: ftp.eff.org Gopher: gopher.eff.org WAIS: wais.eff.org [temporarily unavailable due to overhauling] WWW: http://www.eff.org/ Usenet: comp.org.eff.talk, comp.org.eff.news, alt.politics.datahighway WELL: g eff AOL: keyword EFF CIS: go effsig Computers & Academic Freedom Project: kadie@eff.org, greeny@eff.org CAF mailing list: listserv@eff.org (add comp-academic-freedom-news) CAF FTP: ftp.eff.org, /pub/CAF/ CAF Gopher: gopher.eff.org, 1/CAF CAF WWW: http://www.eff.org/pub/CAF/ Computer underground Digest Archives: cudarch@eff.org CuD FTP: ftp.eff.org, /pub/Publications/CuD/ CuD Gopher: gopher.eff.org, 1/Publications/CuD CuD WWW: http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/CuD/ Snail: PO Box 170190 San Francisco CA 94117 USA Voice: +1 415 668 7171 Fax: +1 415 668 7007 BBS: [temporarily down for overhauling] * Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) The Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research center in Washington, DC. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging privacy issues relating to the National Information Infrastructure, such as the Clipper Chip, the Digital Telephony proposal, medical record privacy, and the sale of consumer data. EPIC is sponsored by the Fund for Constitutional Government and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. EPIC publishes the EPIC Alert and EPIC Reports, pursues Freedom of Information Act litigation, and conducts policy research on emerging privacy issues. EPIC also works closely with Privacy International, a human rights group, on domestic and international privacy issues. General: info@epic.org FTP: ftp.cpsr.org, /cpsr/privacy/epic/ ftp.cpsr.org, /cpsr/alert/ Gopher: gopher.cpsr.org, 1/cpsr/privacy/epic/ gopher.cpsr.org, 1/cpsr/alert WWW: http://epic.digicash.com/epic http://cpsr.org/dox/privacy.html http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/epic/ http://cpsr.org/cpsr/alert/ Snail: 666 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Suite 301 Washington DC 20003 USA Voice: +1 202 544 9240 Fax: +1 202 547 5482 * Feminists for Free Expression (FFFE) FFFE is a group of diverse feminist women including libertarians Joan Kennedy Taylor and Wendy McElroy working to preserve the individual right and responsibility of every woman to read, listen, view and produce materials of her choice, without intervention of the state "for her own good." Freedom of expression is especially important for women's rights. While messages reflecting sexism pervade our culture in many forms, sexual and nonsexual, suppression of such material will neither reduce harm to women nor further women's goals. With this in mind, FFE continues to work through legal, legislative and educational channels to ensure that the First Amendment remains alive and well. [See also FAC.] General: freedom@well.com, ffe@aol.com Snail: 2525 Times Sq. Sta. New York NY 10108-2525 USA Voice: +1 212 702 6292 * First Amendment Laywers Association (FALA) [No info available, other than that Louis Sirkin is the president] * Freedom Lawyers of America (FLoA) This organization started in Chicago as The Libertarian Lawyers Alliance of Illinois (LLAI) in 1978. As part of its goal to start an alliance of libertarian lawyers--a strike force able to handle governmental attacks, the Alliance published a newsletter, entitled "The New Z Letter." LLAI become LLA of Michigan in 1984, and subsequently FLoA in 1994. The organization was founded by attorney and author Shelly Waxman. FLoA is soliciting memberships from lawyers and other sponsors and supporters who believe in freedom. The idea behind FLoA is to develop of pool of Freedom Lawyers who know how to fight government in the courts for all who are fighting unreasonable governmental intrusions. FLoA is a newly re-forming organization, so those who get in now are likely to be formative. General: swaxman@ix.netcom.com WWW: http://www.libertarian.com/shelly/floa.html Snail: PO Box 309 South Haven MI 49090-0309 USA Voice: +1 616 637 6557 Fax: +1 616 637 2922 * Fund for Constitutional Government (FFCG) [No details available] Snail: 2312 19th St. NW Washington DC 20009 USA or 122 Maryland Ave. NE Washington DC 20012 USA Voice: +1 202 546 3732 * Global SchoolNet Foundation (GSF) [US-based, apparently solely US-based, despite the name.] Since 1985 Global SchoolNet Foundation (GSN) has been a leader in the instructional applications of telecommunications. Today the Global SchoolNet Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, is a major contributor to the philosophy, design, culture, and content of educational networking on the Internet and in the classroom. GSN has had an incredible impact on networking in the K12 community. GSN, formerly called FrEdMail (Free Educational Mail), originated with a group of teachers in San Diego over a decade ago. With no budget and minimal support, they set about creating a powerful and now internationally recognized educational information infrastructure starting at the grass roots level. GSN envisioned and then constructed the concept of the "Global Schoolhouse" where teachers, students, business, government, and the community can learn side-by-side. GSN offers K12 education a unique service known as Global SCHLNet Newsgroup Service, the only professionally managed K-12 newsfeed, providing an easy and "safe" way to locate the finest collection of distance learning projects found anywhere on the Internet. [Though providing Internet filtration service, and concerned mostly with educational networking issues, like CoSN, GSN is likely to be an opponent of censorship and privacy-invasion efforts on the part of the government and may be a good ally.] General: info@gsn.org WWW: http://gsn.org/ Snail: PO Box 243 Bonita CA 91908-0243 USA or 7040 Avenida Encinas, Suite 104-281 Carlsbad CA 92009 USA Voice: +1 619 475 4852, +1 619 433 3413 Fax: +1 619 472 0735, +1 619 931 5934 * Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance) - CNI, NINCH The Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance) is a vehicle for cooperative projects between the Association of Research Libraries, CAUSE, and EDUCOM. Currently, its major projects are The Coalition for Networked Information, (formed in 1990; promotes the creation of and access to information resources in networked environments in order to enrich scholarship and to enhance intellectual productivity. Roughly 175 organizations and institutions are members of the Coalition) and the HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies reports (designed to keep chief higher education executives informed about critical issues related to information technologies.) CNI has created a sub-organization, the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage. NINCH seeks to assure the widest possible participation of organizations concerned with our cultural heritage in the evolution of the global information highway. The sponsors of NINCH want to encourage the development of a global information infrastructure as a means of preserving, accessing, and creatively building upon our individual and shared cultural legacies. General: Craig A. Summerhill , Systems Coord./Program Ofcr. CNI general: Joan Lippincott , Asst. Exec. Dir. Exec. Strategies report queries: Karen McBride CNI Announcements list: listproc@cni.org, message body: "subscribe cni-announce " FTP: ftp.cni.org Gopher: gopher.cni.org WWW: http://www.cni.org/ Snail: 21 Dupont Circle NW Washington DC 20036 USA Voice: +1 202 296 5098 Fax: +1 202 872 0884 * Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) [No information available. This is almost certainly a trade assocication, and as such, it's relevance here is probably limited to the likelihood of ISSA opposing government restrictions on encryption and other privacy technology.] Voice: +1 312 644 6610, Dave Lenef (Communications Coordinator) Fax: +1 312 321 6869 * Institute for First Amendment Studies (IFAS) Despite the name, "IFAS is a non-profit educational and research organization focusing solely on the activities of the radical Religious Right. Our home page contains a wealth of information on the Religious Right. Whether your focus is on reproductive rights, gay rights, censorship, education, law, politics, religion, televangelists, church/state issues -- you'll find it on the IFAS home page." IFAS, a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational and research organization, was founded in 1984 by former fundamentalist minister Skipp Porteous and attorney Barbara Simon, to expose and counter the political activities of the Religious Right. Today the Institute is a national clearinghouse for information on theocratic movements in America. With monitors in almost every state, and a small staff of researchers, writers, and computer specialists, the Institute gathers data and prepares newslette rs and reports about groups and individuals who pose a threat to First Amendment freedoms. The Institute's library collects and catalogues hundreds of Religious Right publications. Other research efforts include attending Religious Right conferences and interviewing leaders of the Religious Right. In addition, the Institute's databank contains information on the activities of more than 150,000 Religious Right activists and organizations. The Institute serves as a resource for a wide variety of media. IFAS is a membership organization. [It's pretty evident that the name of this group is a bit of a misnomer, since they cover, apparently, anything the religious right covers, oppositely. That's not necessarily a bad thing.] General: ifas@berkshire.net Snail: PO Box 589 Great Barrington MA 01230 Voice: 1 800 370 3329 (US-only) * Internet Users Consortium (IUC) The goal of IUC is to structure the Internet Community with the help of several contributing organizations. To balance the actions of government with organization. To be adequately and fairly represented in a similar manner as delegates are represented from any other organization or company in the analog world. This multifaceted and multi capable new forum must not be a wasteland. A desert of human rights. IUC asks members to be active and other organizations to be cooperative - to be the creators, the leaders, and the representatives of the Internet Community. The IUC is in constant movement in attempting to coordinate future development of the Internet with peaceful and comprehensive involvement with out Federal Government. A users' association (beginning to internationalize), with the goals of educating the public, media, and policymakers about the internet, IUC takes strong pro-privacy and anti-censorship positions. Membership is free. General: proteios@indirect.com WWW: http://www.indirect.com/www/molsen/ Snail: 7031 E. Camelback, Ste. 102-515 Scottsdale AZ 85251 USA * League for Programming Freedom (LPF) The League is a membership-based organization whose aim is to bring back the freedom to write software. The League is not opposed to the legal system that Congress intended--copyright on individual programs. Our aim is to reverse the recent changes made by judges in response to special interests, often explicitly rejecting the public interest principles of the Constitution. The primary areas of League activity are software patents and user interface copyright. General: lpf@uunet.uu.net FTP: prep.ai.mit.edu, /pub/lpf/ WWW: http://www.lpf.org/ Voice: +1 617 621 7084 Snail: 1 Kendall Square #143 P.O. Box 9171 Cambridge MA 02139 USA * League of Women Voters (LWV) The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. LWV is a non-profit, national (with many local chapters) organization that provides the voting public with information about candidates and their platforms, voting basics, political parties, voting districts, etc. LWV doesn't seem to take a stand, itself, on many issues other than those directly related to voting and elections. Nevertheless, LWV is probably the very best source of voter info in any given area, and essential, if sideline, allies of the online activist. [My discussions with LWV people have left me with the impression that higher-ups in the national org are fairly clueless about the online world, and are making few if any steps toward providing LWV's prodigious amount of info online. However, local chapters are often far more on-the-ball.] General: lwv@lwv.org WWW: http://lwvia.cornell-iowa.edu/National/OtherLeagues.html (an index of state/local chapters' sites.)