The Electronic Frontier Foundation updated: July 9, 1999 ================================== 1550 Bryant Street, Suite 725 San Francisco CA 94103 USA +1 415 436 9333 (voice) +1 415 436 9993 (fax) Internet: ask@eff.org http://www.eff.org EFF's Online Activism Quick Start --------------------------------- * WHAT IS ONLINE ACTIVISM? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the civil liberties of the users of online technology. EFF's work includes educating policymakers, law enforcement and citizens about the issues that affect our current and future communications. EFF is dedicated to providing critical information to the online community through our newsletters (hardcopy and electronic), BBS (Outpost), Internet mailing lists, Usenet newsgroups and online archives (www and ftp). We believe that citizen involvement is the best way to guarantee that the future of our online communications will be consistant with our traditions of free speech and privacy. EFF members participate in a special kind of activism that includes electronic mail campaigns and online political organizing. For more information on membership in the Electronic Frontier Foundation, send mail to membership@eff.org. * RESOURCES EFF maintains extensive electronic archives at ftp.eff.org, gopher.eff.org, and http://www.eff.org/. The archives contain a great deal of issue- specific information including legislation, legal information and documents relating to online communications - the listings below are just a sampling. For help in accessing our archives, refer to the general EFF brochure (http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/about.eff) or send queries to ask@eff.org. ACTION Activists & Volunteers List: An Internet "mailing list" conference for exchange of ideas and project coordination between online activists, volunteers, and others actively involved in developing and protecting online communities and civil liberties in cyberspace. Subscribe by sending e-mail with a body of "subscribe action" (no quotes) to listserv@eff.org. Note that the ACTION forum is a serious working group, not a chat area. ACTION-related documents archived at http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/ACTION/ EFF Online Alerts: Alerts concerning legal, policy and cultural developments affecting the online community are posted regularly to pertinant Usenet Newsgroups including comp.org.eff.news. Subscribe by sending email to listserv@eff.org (message body: "subscribe comp-org-eff-news", no "quotes", all on one line). This mailing list also will bring you a copy of our newsletter as each issue is released (see below for newsletter-only list). Archive: http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Alerts/ EFFector Online: EFF's biweekly electronic newsletter containing timely information about developments affecting online communications. Subscriptions are available at no cost by sending electronic mail to listserv@eff.org (message body: "subscribe effector-online", no "quotes"). Archive: http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/ Online Activism Organizations and resources List: A listing of regional, national and international groups sharing goals similar or complementary to EFF's. http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/organizations.html FOIA Toolkit: Introductory materials and required forms for requesting (or suing for, if necessary) government information under the Freedom of Information Act. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/FOIA/foia.kit FOIA Guide: A citizen's guide to using the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974. Report of the House Committee on Goverment Operations; Subcommittee on Information, Justice, Transportation and Agriculture. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/FOIA/foia.guide Privacy Toolkit: This is Robert Luhn's "toolkit" of resources and informtion about privacy. It includes books, newsletters & journals, online resources and other docs. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Policy/Privacy/privacy.kit Privacy & Anonymity on the Internet: Information on email and account privacy, anonymous mailing and posting, encryption, and other privacy and rights issues associated with use of the Internet and global networks in general. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Policy/Privacy/privacy_anonymity.faq Legal Research: Mark Eckenwiler's guide to the standard resources and tools used in conducting legal research on state and federal law in the US. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/law_research.faq. See also Erik J. Heels's Legal List: Law-Related Resources on the Internet and Elsewhere. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Legal/net_legal_resources.list "Access to Goverment: California's New Legislative Access Provides Model for Other States" - Jim Warren's article documenting how online activism made a new law pass in California. See also his how-to on using online media politically and actively: "How Citizens can Pursue Practical, Potent, Grassroots Political Action - Net-Based, Computer-Aided". California Voter Foundation (CVF) A non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to applying new technologies to provide the public with access to the information needed to participate in public life in a meaningful way. CVF: http://calvoter.org/ Or for a national and international look at these issues check out the groups at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/organizations.html Congressional contact info: A few carefully chosen links to online government sources. We used to have a much more extensive list but there are others filling this niche now. http://www.eff.org/pub/Activism/HTML/govt.html Internet Sources of Government Information: Listing of publicly available information over the Internet. This has been combined with the above and can be reached through the same url: http://www.eff.org/pub/Activism/HTML/govt.html Citizens' Guide to the Net: A primer on using the net for activism and advocacy. A must-read for any grassroots networker interested in making a difference. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/citizen_net.guide Citizen Rights and Access to Electronic Information: A collection of background reports and papers, as relevant today as they were in 1991. Produced for a 1991 ALA/LITA conference. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/elec_rights_ala.papers Ira Borenstein's Lobbying/Advocacy Techniques Primer: to assist you in understanding the legislative process and to act as a concrete tool for developing sophisticated grass roots lobbying or advocacy strategies on the local and/or regional level. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/lobby_techniques.faq Adam Gaffin's Media Online List: list of newspaper and magazine email addresses - very useful when disseminating alerts and press releases. http://www.eff.org/pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/media_online.list A source of Internet Resources for Non-Profit Public Service Organizations: http://www.idealist.org/ Usenet Newsgroups: Some newsgroups to check out include alt.activism, alt.activism.d, comp.org.eff.talk, comp.org.cpsr.talk, alt.censorship, misc.activism.progressive, alt.society.civil.liberty, misc.legal, misc.legal.computing, talk.politics.crypto and other talk.politics.* newsgroups, alt.privacy (and sub-groups), alt.society.foia, alt.society.resistance, alt.freedom.of.information.act and alt.politics.datahighway (and other alt.politics.* groups), and alt.org.* groups. Unless noted as WWW-specific, all files are accessible via ftp. Generally if the url has html in it, it won't make much sense via ftp. (substitute ftp.eff.org for the host; path is the same) * CONTACTING EFF Membership & donations: membership@eff.org Legal services: ssteele@eff.org Hardcopy publications: pubs@eff.org Online publications, conferences, & other resources: mech@eff.org Technical questions/problems, access to mailing lists: eff@eff.org Latest issue of EFFector (EFF newsletter): effector-reflector@eff.org Updated: July 9, 1999
