Subject: GovAccess.022: Finger; Common Cause; Florida access; I'net county; Who? Mar.03, 1994 "Politics, n., strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles." -- Ambrose Bierce [sent by ppjc@igc.apc.org ] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNITY NETWORKING Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 11:39:20 -0500 From: Vinton G. Cerf The Internet Society is co-sponsoring the First International Conference on Community Networking. Details may be found in the Internet Society Gopher Server: gopher.isoc.org in the section on Internet Society Conferences. --Vint Cerf [Vint created TCP/IP, founded the Internet, founding prexy of Inet Soc. -jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& THEY CAN RUN, BUT THEY CAN'T HIDE - FINGER YOUR SENATOR [that's not nasty] [an untested anonymous contribution] California Residents: Can you talk to your state legislature via electronic mail? Your Senator? Your Assembly member? Here's how to find out. Let's suppose your legislator is Jerry Brown. To see if Jerry has decided to receive electronic mail, you can finger brown@sen.ca.gov If he's there, you'll get an answer like this: % finger brown@sen.ca.gov Looking for that name. Please wait... Here are some possible matches to your query. Jerry.Brown@SEN.CA.GOV If you need more information, finger info@sen.ca.gov If he's not there, you should let him know that he SHOULD be there. To find out your Senator's phone number and paper mail address, try fingering your ZIP code: finger 91234@sen.ca.gov [Now *that's* how a public legislative net-server *ought* to work! Oh, and by the way, Jerry Brown is not now and has never been a legislator. --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& CALIFORNIA COMMON CAUSE HAS ONLINE PRESENCE; NEEDS ONLINE ASSISTANCE The California branch of the public-interest/open-government advocacy group, Common Cause, has recently obtained an online account (not given, here, 'cause they're not yet geared up to handle incoming floods). They are a rich [but financially-destitute] source of reputable "inside" information about state government and would like to make their data freely available online. But they're goodgov-groupies; not techno-groupies. They need net-literate volunteers -- preferably one(s) who can meet with 'em in Sacramento, at least long enough to hold their hands and make 'em comfy with the net-swamp. Contact Ruth Holton, Exec. Dir., 926 "J" St.#910, Sacramento CA 95814 916-443-1792; fax/916-443-1897. --- [EXAMPLE] JUST-ISSUED CAL COMMON CAUSE CAMPAIGN-LOOT TIDBITS Finally completing the laborious shuffling through mountains of "public" records file cabinets filled with campaign-finance reports, CCC reports the top ten PAC contributors to California legislative campaigns in the 1991-1992 election cycle were: $1,338,314 California Medical Assn 1,017,972 California Correctional Peace Officers Assn [prison guards] 992,695 California Teachers Assn [diff.from Cal.Federation of Tchrs.] 915,745 Allied Business PAC 716,722 California Trial Lawyers Assn 649,800 California Real Estate PAC 604,980 Assn of California Insurance Companies 549,449 Atlantic Richfield Company [a tax-deductable business exp??] 515,241 California Dental PAC 497,271 California Optometric PAC --- If campaign-finance contribution reports were submitted in computerized form and made promptly-available online (per my Jan.4th implementation proposal), voters could see who's buying how much access from which elected officials -- *before* they select which candidates to vote against. :-) &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& FLORIDA SURVEYS ELECTRONIC RECORDS ACCESS ISSUES AND PROBLEMS The Joint Committee on Information Technology Resources of the Florida State Legislature has issued, "Electronic Records Access: Problems and Issues," a 171-page report plus four extensive appendices. It addresses federal and other states' access, as well as Florida's; details their Public Records Law, defines words/concepts; access costs and fees; barriers to electronic access including copyright issues; privacy and data protection; and, offers conclusions, recommendations and references. My copy came with a cover letter from State Rep. Charlie Roberts, Chair of the joint committee. Staff Director is Karen Stolting, 111 W. Madison St. Room 876, Tallahassee FL 32399-1400; 904-488-4646; fax/904-488-7219 [no email address or online-copy ftp-site given -- tsk!]. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& SAN MATEO COUNTY (CALIF.) COMING ON THE INTERNET IN MARCH; ONE OF THE FIRST?? The ~700,000-population county that is sandwiched between famous San Francisco City & County and famous Santa "Silicon Valley" Clara County -- San Mateo County -- *may* be the first, or one of the first counties in the 32-million-population state and/or perhaps even the nation, to have a public- info host of their own on the Internet, expected to be live by mid-March. (Yes, I'll post details to GovAccess when details are public.) Their computer's already purchased. Mark Graham's Pandora Systems (mark@path.net; 415-346-4188) is consulting on the installation, working with Tim Pozar from Late Night Software (pozar@kumr.lns.com; 415-695-7727). The Internet connection is via RGnet (also known as TLG, The Little Garden) -- the super-neat "buyer's club" providing hyper-low-cost 56Kb and T-1 host- connections to the Internet, with POPs (points-of-presence) in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Mountain View and growing fast (info@tlg.org; 415-487-1902). The departments initially planning on using it include (1) the Registrar of Voters, (2) Department of Health Services and (3) County Board of Supervisors. The folks to especially applaud for this include County Clerk/Recorder/ Registrar/Assessor/Collector Warren Slocum (415-363-4988) [though he keeps wanting to blame me for it :-) ] and County Chief Information Officer Dorothy Yetter (415-363-4234). Also, Board of Supes Prexy Tom Huening and fellow Supe. Ruben Barrales are both known to be actively supporting the project (415-363-4653). See? There *are* MODERN public officials. :-) &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& WHO'S ON FIRST? - A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Are there other counties with their own host-computer(s) on the Internet to provide access to county information, and/or receive email communications from their citizens, and/or offer other net-based community-support services? Please provide contact specifics. The exploding number of civic-nets containing local-government information and online forums, run by public-interest groups or civic-minded citizens. And there are numerous stand-alone BBS's (computer bulletin-board systems) run by local agencies. But these ain't the same thing. Non-agency civnets are not under the public's control - not even indirectly, as are agency-operated systems. And BBSs are neat, cheap and often have a *far* more congenial user-interface, e.g. using First Class BBS software like Robert Kim's City Connection system in San Jose CA (rkim@skipper.cityconnect.com; 408-272-4185). But they also limit access to those who (1) are geographically nearby (2) can afford humongous long-distance dial-up charges whenever they dare to be un-local, (3) want little information, rarely, or (4) can accept access- delays that may be *days* long [gasp!] for info by Fidonet email. [Don't po-po multi-day delays in delivery of local-agency information. Elected and appointed decision-making bodies often publish their agendas and supporting reports only a few days before they hold hearings and vote on crucial decisions. *Timely* access to complete public information is an *essential* prerequisite to effective public participation in community governance. --- I want more. More. MORE! - AND WILL SHARE IT ALL, RIGHT HYAR Above question sought *counties* with their own Internet hosts. How about *cities* and other *local* agencies? How about *state* agencies that run their own Internet hosts to provide public info access or other services to the public? How about non-academic public libraries - general, legal, medical, etc.? --- I will echo or compile-and-echo the responses, in later GovAccess postings. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Wallowing in the luxury of writing about neat-stuff, rather than doin' my duty as endless email slave - I'm jus' plain ol' --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.<< [NOTE: I *am* monumentally backlogged in my email - back to Feb 21st, with about 350 msgs left to go. So, I blush to suggest using the phone if you want *fast* communication with me. Am workin' on a better system. Soon...]