Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 22:01:28 -0700 Subject: GovAccess.055: CQ online; fixing FOIA; Cal info; WWW; un-spam CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY NOW ONLINE >From CHRIS@PITZER.EDU Thu Sep 8 16:37:06 1994 Found the following item in the Educom update. You may already have heard about it... CQ STARTS GOPHER SERVICE Congressional Quarterly now makes its current and archived files available via a Gopher server. Users can find the current CQ Weekly Report, the cumulative index, weekly news briefs, the status of major legislation, results from roll call votes, election updates and more. For information send e-mail to mhenderson@cqalert.com or gopher to gopher.cqalert.com. (Internet World 10/94 p.14) -- Chris Yoder Smog, Just say NO! Acting Director of Academic Computing Chris@Pitzer.Edu Drive electric today. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: PLUGGING THE ELECTRONIC LOOPHOLE (From Whats New #3.) >From farber@eff.org Fri Sep 2 16:18:11 1994 From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber) 3. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: PLUGGING THE ELECTRONIC LOOPHOLE. In the hours before recess, the Senate passed a bill offered by Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to extend the 1966 Freedom of Information Act to include computer records. You may find it hard to believe that legislation is needed, but information has been withheld on the grounds that it's not a "document" unless it's printed on paper (WN 24 Jun 89). In other cases, agencies supplied CD-ROM data, but refused to provide access instructions (WN 8 Sep 89)! The Leahy bill requires computer records to be user-friendly. [ Let's see if this bill has a better fate than Californica's AB 2451 (Bates) that would have opened up already-computerized state records to online public access, and SB 758 (Hayden) that would have done the same for campaign- finance records. In both cases, political insiders killed the bills - either by lethal injection of massive exemptions for government profit, or simply by petty personal feuds. Leahy's legislation might have a chance if all of us flood Congress with support letters. (More details as I get 'em.) --jim ] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& ACCESSING CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT'S LEGISLATORS & ELECTRONIC INFORMATION >From al@Sunnyside.COM Sun Sep 4 00:58:44 1994 Though a trifle dated, look in ftp://cpsr.org/cpsr/states/california/asbly_roster and ftp://cpsr.org/cpsr/states/california/senate_roster Also notice the *excellent* FAQ on California Electronic access in text form: ftp://cpsr.org/cpsr/states/california/940901.cal_gov_info_FAQ Or in hypertext at: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/states/california/cal_gov_info_FAQ.html I think you can look at the FAQ to learn about sen.ca.gov which has a gopher server which has current contact info for senators. -- al@sunnyside.com +1-415 322-5411 Tel, -6481 Fax, Box 60, Palo Alto, CA 94302 &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& The world-wide web and its point-n-click Mosaic front-end is making massive amounts of information readily available to non-technoids. With a WWW connection and a [free] copy of Mosaic client software, it's almost as good as putting an electric starter in one o' them horseless-carriage thingies that's been scaring the horses, 'round town. --jim WORLD-WIDE WEB INFORMATION WITHOUT WORLD-WIDE WEB CONNECTIONS >From brad@ape.com Sat Sep 10 13:48:25 1994 From: brad@ape.com (Brad Schrick) Subject: Re: WWW by email via CERN It occurred to me that only a fraction of your correspondents have World-Wide Web access. This is how to get the stuff from WWW pages by email (you can then look at it, with a little editing, using a local copy of Mosaic, MacWeb, or whatever, available free by ftp or BBS). Don't know how long this WWW by email service will be free, how long it will last, and can't guarantee what the turnaround will be: Most people only have email access to the Internet, and are therefore deprived of interactive access to the World Wide Web. The good news is that most pages are available by email! Request WWW pages by sending email to listproc@www0.cern.ch . Put your retrieval commands in the BODY of the mail, like this www Example: www http://www.biotech.washington.edu/WebCrawler/WebCrawlerExamples.html That's all. Lean back and wait. You will get a page filled with hints on how to use the WebCrawler service." Odd de Presno From owner-new-list@VM1.NODAK.EDU Thu Sep 8 09:43:31 1994 Sender: NEW-LIST - New List Announcements From: David Stodolsky Subject: NEW: JUDGES-L - For netnews multiple post judges JUDGES-L on LISTSERV@UBVM.BITNET Judges who cancel posts that or LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU threaten to overload NetNews The JUDGES-L list distributes messages to a panel of judges that cancel multiple posts to Network News immediately. The list is used to help judges organize themselves, finalize policy, and set procedures to enforce rules. It is primarily directed to those who issue cancels. Secondarily, to those who survey cancels issued, in order to ensure that the cancel facility is not being abused. General policy discussion is conducted in the UseNet newsgroup news.admin.policy. A periodic post in that newsgroup gives the current policy consensus. In is not the intention of the judges to regulate the content of articles posted. The protection of the Network News system from overload by posts to multiple groups is the focus of the activity. Widespread posting of off topic material and overloads of individual newsgroups is a secondary focus of discussion. Mechanisms for the control of automatic posting software or automatic cancellation software is within the scope of discussion. Security mechanisms to facilitate the cancellation of abusive posts is also within the scope of this distribution list. Archives of JUDGES-L and related files are stored in the JUDGES-L FILELIST. To receive a list of files send the command INDEX JUDGES-L to LISTSERV@UBVM.BITNET or LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU as the first line in the BODY of a mail message (NOT the Subject: line). To subscribe to JUDGES-L, send the command SUB JUDGES-L your name to LISTSERV@UBVM.BITNET or LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU via a mail message (again, as the first line in the BODY of the mail, NOT the Subject: line). For example: SUB JUDGES-L John Doe Owner: David Stodolsky, PhD [Note: NEW-LIST@VM1.NODAK.EDU puts out announcements of new online information-lists, almost daily, as well as occasional queries from those seeking a discussion of a given topic. Notices are rarely much larger than this one. --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& MORE WEB-SPEAK >From whitaker@extropia.corp.sgi.com Thu Sep 8 12:23:31 1994 Subject: (Fwd) Your very own outside WWW home page I've just now set up a WWW page for myself on the Ohio State server! I highly recommended trying out this URL... --- Forwarded mail from whitaker (Russell Whitaker) Hey, if any of you wish to set up WWW home pages of your own outside the SGI firewall, open the following URL: --- Forwarded mail from baophac@dqueen.montreal.sgi.com (Bao Phac Do) http://www.mps.ohio-state.edu/HomePage/ ____ | | Bao Phac Do | o| Technical Support Engineer |____| baophac@montreal.sgi.com -- Russell Earl Whitaker whitaker@extropia.corp.sgi.com I.S. Assistance Center 415-390-3826 Silicon Graphics, Inc. Mountain View, CA. ================================================================ If you are behind SGI's firewall, here's my WWW home page: http://extropia.corp.sgi.com:8001/people/whitaker.html ... my Netcom home page is also under construction! Stay tuned! &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& "If you can't beat them, buy them." --Craig McCaw [From zorca@aol.com] --jim GovAccess is a series of postings and a distribution-list maintained by Jim Warren, columnist for MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc. 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/415-851-2814 jwarren@well.com -or- jwarren@autodesk.com [James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award, Soc.of Prof.Journalists - Nor.Calif., 1994; Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation, 1994; Pioneer Award, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 1992 (first year); founder, Computers, Freedom & Privacy confs, 1991; InfoWorld founder; blah blah blah] >> Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation.<< >> Past postings are at ftp.cpsr.org:/cpsr/states/california/govaccess << >> To add or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.com . <<