From: Jim Warren Subject: GovAccess.017: school/library access + Speaker online + SEC online Feb.16, 1994 JEFFERSON SAID IT FIRST (NOT GORE) From neale@ee.rochester.edu Tue Feb 1 11:27:39 1994 Subject: yr quote my quote "Information is the currency of democracy." No, not Al Gore. Tom Jefferson. Two centuries ago, they understood perfectly well that the danger is that we can be controlled by what we are allowed to know and when. Thanks for your continuing information. Reg Neale %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% CALIF REPORTS ON INFO TECH STRATEGY AND SCHOOL & LIBRARY COMMUNICATIONS TECH [I asked about a state study on information-technology strategy. --jim] ... No, of course it's not available online, whyever would a report on strategic directions in information technology be available over the wires. BTW, the other report you might be interested in the a 11/93 Public Utilities Commission report to the Guv (don't have a title) which appears to be the basis for this Golden State Education Network proposal. Apparently the report recommended the creation of a California program to provide $150 million annually to bring advance communications to California schools and libraries. Surprise! You should be able to call the Wilson's office and request a copy. I'm waiting for my copy to arrive via US Post Office. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SCHOOL & LIBRARY ACCESS: A NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE DISCUSSION Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 20:39:17 -0600 From: djw@eff.org (Daniel J. Weitzner) [comments noted at a meeting of the federal NII Advisory Committee] The following is relatively accurate reconstruction of an exchange between John Sculley and Vance Operman (president of West Publishing) on the subject of free information access for schools and libraries. Sculley and Operman were joined by VP Gore a bit later. Sculley: I want us to think seriously about assuring that schools and libraries can have free access to information resources. Not just the transport, but the content as well. Certainly this has a cost attached to it, but it would be an invaluable investment in our nation's future. Operman: John, you couldn't mean that. If information is free than it's worth nothing.... I would be horror-stricken if the result of this committee was a consensus that all library resources were available for free anywhere around the NII. That would put an end to the US information industry. [Some time passes, VP Gore arrives to make some brief comments, and then raises the subject of free access to the NII for schools, libraries and clinics.] Sculley [in response to Gore]: We don't want the high price of information to be a barrier for classroom and library access. We have to talk about more than just putting wires in schools and libraries. Gore: We should talk about free connect-time as well for classrooms. I know that this has a cost, but it's so important that I'm not prepared to talk it off the table just yet. It would be a very important investment. Operman: Well I'll give you an example of a way that market forces all by themselves have provided free access, without any government involvment. Both West and Mead provide law students free access to their legal information services, at very high cost to the companies. That's millions of dollars of subsidy right there, resulting from competitive market forces alone. Gore: Well, Vance, professional schools are different from elementary schools. (Operman interrupts: "Law schools aren't much different from elementary schools.") It makes some sense to have a loss leader there to build a market for your services amoung law school graduates. Operman: Well, certain well known computer companies [he turns to Sculley] have been known to put a lot of computers in classrooms for similar reasons. Gore: I really don't think that we're talking about the same market. One is computers and the other is information services. Unless you believe that Nintendo will come up with some kind of Euclidean geometry game that they would give a way for free. But until you see this happening, we still have to ensure free access for schools. Bob Johnson (CEO Black Entertainment Television): There are also some markets, regions, that no one competes for. These communities need information access, too. [I'm not representing this as a word-for-word transcript, but it's a pretty careful paraphrase of the main points made with a fair amount of direct quotation. --Daniel J. Weitzner] --- Daniel J. Weitzner, Senior Staff Counsel Electronic Frontier Foundation 202-347-5400 (v) 1001 G St, NW Suite 950 East 202-393-5509 (f) Washington, DC 20001 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SPEAKER OF CALIF STATE LEGISLATURE'S ASSEMBLY (LOWER HOUSE) SPEAKS ONLINE Feb. 9, 1994, PRESS RELEASE #33 Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown, Jr., today announced that all press releases, media advisories, and weekly radio addresses will be available on the Internet system. To access this information, send a message to almanac@assembly.ca.gov with the appropriate command in the body of the message. A list of available commands follows: To get help: Send a message to -- almanac@assembly.ca.gov In the body, type -- help To Subscribe to daily summaries: Send a message to -- almanac@assembly.ca.gov In the body, type -- subscribe speaker-sum To Unsubscribe: Send a message to -- almanac@assembly.ca.gov In the body, type -- unsubscribe speaker-sum To request a catalog of summaries: Send a message to -- almanac@assembly.ca.gov In the body, type -- send speaker-sum catalog To request a catalog of documents: Send a message to -- almanac@assembly.ca.gov In the body, type -- send speaker-doc catalog To request a specific summary: Send a message to -- almanac@assembly.ca.gov In the body, type -- send speaker-sum number where "number" is the request number for the summary To request a specific document: Send a message to -- almanac@assembly.ca.gov In the body, type -- send speaker-doc number where "number" is the request number for the document If you have any questions about these documents, please contact almanac-admin@assembly.ca.gov [No, I have no information on whether it includes press releases from other members of the Assembly, nor from un-Democrats, nor information on how to send email to the Speaker. But, hey!, it's a first step. --jim] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECURITIES EXCHANGE COMMISSION FILINGS NOW FREELY AVAILABLE From tap-info@essential.org Wed Feb 2 08:59 1994 [reformatted here -jim] Distributed to TAP-INFO, a free Internet Distribution List --- TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - SEC'S EDGAR Version 1.1 Beginning January 17, 1993, the NSF funded project to put the SEC's EDGAR filings on the Internet began operation. The service is provided by NYU and the Internet Multicasting Service (IMS), the latter a service run by Carl Malamud. The EDGAR filings are stored on an ftp site at town.hall.org , in a subdirectory called edgar . The data are now available both by email and by ftp. For documentation on how to use the service, send an email message to mail@town.hall.org , with the word help in the body of the message. As best as we can figure, the system seems to work as follows. There is a file with the names of all the filings, called company.idx. Then, armed with the file name, you can get the file by an email or ftp command. --- 1. GET THE COMPANY.IDX FILE By email: Send Email to " mail@town.hall.org ". In the body of the message write: send edgar/company.idx By ftp: FTP to town.hall.org . Logon as " anonymous ". Give your email address as your password. At the ftp> prompt type: ascii (then press enter) cd edgar (then press enter) get company.idx (then press enter) bye (then enter to logoff) 2. NEXT, FIND DOCUMENTS OF INTEREST. Example lines in the company.Idx file: DISNEY WALT CO 10-K 19940113 data1/0000950131-94-00021.txt ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Date File Name 3. RETRIEVING THE FILES OF INTEREST. By EMAIL: Send email to "mail@town.hall.org". In the body of the message type: send edgar/data1/0000950131-94-00021.txt By ftp: FTP to town.hall.org. Logon as "anonymous". Give your email address as your password. At the ftp> prompt type: ascii (then hit enter) cd edgar (then hit enter) cd data1 (then hit enter) get 0000950131-94-00021.txt (then hit enter) bye (then enter to logoff) [The above file name gives you the 10-K for the Walt Disney Co.] If one wishes to get the SEC filings for a particular day, they are listed in the " daily-index " subdirectory. The file names are in the format " company.013194.idx ". This would be the file for January 31, 1994. --- TAP-INFO is an Internet Distribution List provided by the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP). TAP was founded by Ralph Nader to monitor the management of government property, including information systems and data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government assets. TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal information policy. tap-info is archived at ftp.cpsr.org ; gopher.cpsr.org and wais.cpsr.org . Subscription requests to tap-info to listserver@essential.org with the message: subscribe tap-info your name --- Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036 v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: tap@essential.org %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Mo' as it Is. --jim Jim Warren, columnist for MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc. 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/415-851-2814 >> To join the GovAccess list, email a request to jwarren@well.sf.ca.us .<< >> Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation.<<