Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 20:05:22 -0800 From: Jim Warren Subject: GovAccess.086: PFF; Gov-$$$; Local-$; 4th World; Info-grab; $4.5M/Newt PRELMINARY ALERT: RE AN *ACCURATE* CONGRESSIONAL RECORD *ONLINE* On their opening day, the House of Representatives changed their rules regarding Members' ability to "revise and extend" - i.e., fictionalize - the Congressional Record that is their official record. They are now requiring that the Record actually include a verbatum transcript of their *actual* comments. (Hot dang them sneaky Republicans! :-) But they are also continuing to permit the Record to be "extended," after the fact, with comments and information that are *not* otherwise presented in the House - and will require that such extensions appear in the Record in a "different type-face" that will clearly separate them from the transcript of *actual* comments and information presented. The House Administration Committee will promulgate explicit rules for its actual implementation. That may work fine for the Congressional Record in *printed* form, but they need to make provisions that don't depend on type-face to assure such clarity for *modern* citizens who access the Record online in hum-drum ASCII (well, okay, so ASCII is *semi*-modern, but it's still the net's only Espranto :-). I am currently tracking down the fax numbers, and snailmail and electronic addresses, for the House-creatures who should most-appropriately receive timely net-users' input on this matter, and will provide details in a forthcoming GovAccess. I'm also trying to find out if the Senate will adopt similar rules, or will retain their traditional fiction-writers self-granted' prerogative that so- easily misleads naive citizens who think that the official Record of Congress actually reflects what Congress-critters actually said. --jim &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& JAN. 10th TOFFLER-GINGRICH-ETAL CONF ON DEMOCRACY IN VIRTUAL AMERICA Wed, 4 Jan 1995 16:24:12 -0500 >From gnray@clark.net (Garry N. Ray) The Progress & Freedom Foundation of Washington, D.C. is sponsoring a groundbreaking conference on Democracy In Virtual America on Tuesday, January 10, 1995 in Washington, D.C. Held at the Stouffer-Mayflower Hotel at Connecticut Avenue & L Streets NW, the conference will include presentations and speeches by futurists Heidi and Alvin Toffler; author and Forbes magazine columnist George Gilder; economist Michael Rothschild of The Bionomics Institute; Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich; Senator Phil Gramm; and others. $150.00 for regular attendees; $75.00 for non-profit and government registrants; $35.00 for students. Contact the Progress & Freedom Foundation, 1250 H St, NW, Suite 550, Washington, D.C., 20005. (202)484-2312(voice);(202)484-9326(fax); pff@aol.com (e-mail). Members of the press and other registrants should contact Bethany Noble at the Progress & Freedom Foundation. CONFERENCE AGENDA 9am Keynote Address: Creating a New Civilization - Alvin and Heidi Toffler 10 am Break 10:15 Session I: Culture and Politics in Virtual America - Dr. Michael Vlahos with Arianna Huffington, Bruce Chapman, Don Eberly. OPEN FLOOR DISCUSSION 12:30 Lucheon Featuring Hon. Phil Gramm, US Senate 2 pm Session II: Virtual Economy, Virtual Government - Michael Rothschild with Will Marchall, Vin Weber, George Gilder. OPEN FLOOR DISCUSSION 4:15 pm Break 4:30 pm Last Session - From Virtuality to Reality - Hon. Newt Gingrich 5:30 pm Conference Concludes (Okay, okay ... now for some *really* useful stuff. --jim) &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& NEW LISTSERV: News - FinanceNet National Performance Review News Tue, 27 Dec 1994 11:40:11 CST >From brich@nsf.gov News on listproc@financenet.gov FinanceNet News FinanceNet's master "News" list is a distribution and discussion list for general gov't financial management documents, news, announcements and notices for interested subscribers across all geopolitical boundaries. Participants are encouraged to post, or cross-post, their own region's news announements to this list for all to share and to participate in dialog in sharing sucesses, best practices, etc. FinanceNet is an independent public Internet network established by Vice President Gore's National Performance Review and operated by the National Science Foundation. FinanceNet reaches across geopolitical boundaries to link financial management staff worldwide to catalyze continuous improvements in the stewardship and accountability of taxpayer resources. To subscribe, address your request to listproc@financenet.gov . You may leave the subject blank on all list service requests. In the first line of the message body, type the following command: subscribe news yourfirstname yourlastname For example: subscribe news John Doe You must use your true name (John Doe) in the command above (not your e-mail address). You will receive a complete set of list manager commands and protocols by return e-mail in the "Welcome" message. For information on other FinanceNet Internet mail lists, send a blank e-mail message (no subject necessary) to: email-info@financenet.gov For complete information on all FinanceNet services send a blank Internet e-mail message to: info@financenet.gov FinanceNet's URLs: gopher://gopher.financenet.gov http://www.financenet.gov/ ftp://ftp.financenet.gov point newsreaders to news.financenet.gov Owner: B. Preston Rich preston.rich@nsf.gov Co-Chair, FinanceNet Core Team Voice: (703) 306-1282 Established by Vice President Gore's Fax: (703) 306-0287 Office of the National Performance Review Washington, D.C. with Operations Provided by the National Science Foundation &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& NEW LISTSERV: CommunityDevelopmentBanking-L - Community Reinvestment Sat, 24 Dec 1994 20:40:40 CST >From William Myers CommunityDevelopmentBanking-L on ListProc@cornell.edu The CommunityDevelopmentBanking-L list is for practitioners of community reinvestment: Community Development Credit Unions, CD Banks, CD Loan Funds, CDCs, and support organizations. Discussion ranges from practice (how to target low income markets, how delinquency is handled) to legislation (CDFI and CRA) to announcements of upcoming events. To subscribe to CommunityDevelopmentBanking-L, send the following command to LISTPROC@CORNELL.EDU in the BODY of e-mail: SUBSCRIBE CommunityDevelopmentBanking-L yourfirstname yourlastname For example: SUBSCRIBE CommunityDevelopmentBanking-L Jane C Banker Owner: William Myers Alternatives-Myers@Cornell.edu Manager, Alternatives Federal Credit Union 301 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850-5431 Voice (607) 273-3582 ext 817 FAX 277-6391 &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& GOV'T RECOMMENDS ELECTRONIC COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS -- from edupage Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 03:22:41 -0500 From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber) The draft report on copyright law issued last July is drawing fire from some academics and librarians, who say it gives copyright holders too much power and "ought to maintain the balance that is maintained in the print world," according to a law professor who moderates an Internet forum on copyright law. One particular sticking point is U.S. Patent & Trademark Office Commissioner Lehman's opposition to allowing libraries to ship books electronically to patrons, because an extra copy would show up in each recipient's computer. "To me, the burden on those who would say that ought to be a fair use is extraordinarily high. You would see massive dislocation of the market for that work," says Lehman. The draft report was used to represent the U.S. position in recent meetings of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and Lehman says a basically unaltered final report will be ready in the spring. (Wall Street Journal 12/27/94 B5) &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& FOURTH WORLD DOCUMENTATION PROJECT - CENTER FOR WORLD INDIGENOUS STUDIES Wed, 28 Dec 1994 13:04:09 -0800 (PST) >From Center For World Indigenous Studies The Center For World Indigenous Studies and the Fourth World Documentation Project are now available on the World Wide Web. Our goal is to present the online community with the greatest possible access to Fourth World documents and resources. To this end, the CWIS web site offers access to: * The complete Fourth World Documentation Project Archives containing over 300 documents on Indigenous Peoples in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe, Melanesia and the Pacific. * Speeches, articles and essays by leading Fourth World writers, political analysts and leaders. * United Nations documents including various drafts of the Universal Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples and presentations to the 3rd - 12th sessions of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. * Papers and resolutions by tribal governments and inter-tribal organizations, including: The National Congress of American Indians, The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, The Conference of Tribal Governments and the Navajo Nation's Navajo-Hopi Land Commission. * The latest Center For World Indigenous Studies Publication Catalogue, background on CWIS and the Fourth World Documentation Project. * Connections to more than 30 other Indigenous focused Internet Gopher, FTP and WWW sites. Point your WWW browser at: URL http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/fwdp.html for the FWDP home page URL http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/cwisinfo.html for the CWIS home page The FWDP may also be accessed via: GOPHER at fir.cic.net (Politics/Fourth.World) FTP at ftp.halcyon.com in the pub/FWDP directory John Burrows, Executive Director jburrows@halcyon.com Center For World Indigenous Studies The Quarto Mundista BBS http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/cwisinfo.html FidoNet 1:352/333 206-786-9629 &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& 4.5-MILLION DOLLARS FOR YOU, NOW! -- IF ... The fact that you receive GovAccess implies that you are interested in what government is doing; perhaps you are a political activist; perhaps you are an effective activist/leader. Now, let's say that your total net worth is much less than a million dollars; maybe you have a family; perhaps your yearly family income doesn't exceed $200,000 (not-at-all shabby, but hardly in the multi-millionaire category). And let's say you're offered $4.5-million dollars, up front - as a [non- refundable?] advance against possible future book royalties. Think of all that it would mean to you for the rest of your life, and to your family. But if you take it, you will have to give up the possibility of being a political leader, and you will also no longer be able to work as effectively with a random mob of self-important, endlessly-critical, often-beligerent, wildly-egotistical, argumentative politicians. I don't want to know what *you* would do, but I suspect that most folks would take the money and lifelong security for themselves and their family, and forego politics. Newt Gingrich, however, chose to continue his work - and hope that he *might* someday see that much loot from book royalties. --jim &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& "We empower each other by sharing information...We can create here, together, a society in which everyone has a voice, and everybody's ideas are heard." - Sheila Lennon, "The Global Village is Finally Wired", Providence [RI] Sunday Journal, 08/07/94 [via Stanton McCandlish ] Mo' as it Is. --jim GovAccess is a series of irregular postings & a distrib-list maintained by Jim Warren, GovAccess moderator; columnist, MicroTimes/Govt.Tech/BoardWatch 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/<# upon request> jwarren@well.com (well.com = well.sf.ca.us; also at jwarren@autodesk.com) & To add or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.com . & & Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation. & & Past postings are at ftp.cpsr.org: /cpsr/states/california/govaccess & Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 19:59:01 -0800 From: Jim Warren Subject: GovAccess.085-1/2: house-keeping; excuses; Eudora!!!; documents avail CHANGE OF E-ADDR FOR jwarren AND FOR LONGER-SUFFERING GovAccess RECIPIENTS Many of you used to send email to me at jwarren@autodesk.com . Please change to: ===> jwarren@well.com <=== !!! I now check well.com mo'less often, but only-RARELY check autodesk.com . [GovAccess is my distrib list for irregular missives regarding citizen-access to government ... and sometimes about government-access to citizens. See the sig-lines at the end regarding where past GovAccess postings are archived. GovAccess now contains about 1,200 eaddrs, including ~40-60 that are, in turn, other distrib lists - some of them, quite large - that have requested GovAccess for *their* auto-echoing.] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& IF YOU RECEIVE MORE THAN ONE COPY OF THIS ... I have been doing a massive clean-up on my GovAccess distrib list. I think I got it right, but if "the computer made an error" and you receive more than one copy of this, please accept my blushing apologies and let me know of the dups and/or which eaddr you wish for me to delete - if copies arrived via different eaddrs. --jim &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& LIKE THE WARDEN GROWLED IN THAT OLD PRISON-RIOT MOVIE ... AH'M BACK! Back in mid-October, I said I was takin' off for a little vacation. In traditional style - all things to extreme; nothing in moderation - I was vacant and offline for more'n two months. I know; I know - you're gonna punish me by reducing what you pay me. (0/x = 0 :-) Okay, so I had delusions of a social life. What a silly idea - life beyond the net. Clearly an unrealistic notion for a rotund curmudgeon (Rush Limbaugh not withstanding). Anyway, you may again expect GovAccess to dribble into your e-box, as irregularly as it did prior to my Moments of Hedonism. :-) --jim &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& EUDORA OFFLINE E-MAIL HANDLER IS **WONDERFUL** !!! I pursued my "little" vacation and playtime, and casually disregarded my email inbox for about two months. DUMB move! In the past week, I ploughed thru about 2,200 of the most-recent e-msgs, and only have another 900 to go (okay, so a number of 'em predated my evacuation). I tell ya, I simply couldn't have survived processing that datamountain, using Unix 'mail' via dialup connection. And as a desktop/Mac zealot with abysimal rural-like phone-service and a gigabyte of archives, I don't like command-line email-processing on yoyoing remote hosts. So I finally took the time to install Eudora 2.1 - the low-cost commercial version from Qualcomm - and WOW!, DOES EUDORA MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Even more exciting - Qualcomm has a toll-free tech-support line. (Mac-equivalent Eudoras are available for Windows , and very-useful earlier versions for the Mac remain available as freeware.) Hot dang, I *knew* these hyar computer-thingies cud improv productivity *somehow*. And if it ain't obvious - yes, I *absolutely* recommend Steve Dormer's glorious Eudora - either the freeware or feeware versions. [I can't *believe* I waited this long to become properly equipped. ] --jim Now that I finally took the time to trade in my dataroad Model T for a Eudora racecar with modern cruise controls ... &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& FORMATTED ARTICLES-by-jim NOW AVAILABLE AS EMAIL ATTACHMENTS Over the past year or two, many of you have asked for copies of various documents that I have cited in GovAccess or related columns that I have written for MicroTimes, BoardWatch or Government Technology. I rarely took the time to convert 'em from formatted Mac Word 5.1 files - that include footnotes, smart-quotes and n-dashes - to dumbed-down ASCII. Now, if you wish electronic copies of formatted-text versions of documents that I have originated, just ask - IF you can accept email with attachments in any of the following forms: AppleSingle - best for other Macs AppleDouble - best for MIME - Multipurpose I'net Mail Extensions binhex - best for old Mac mailers and very-early Eudora vers. UUENCODE - best for older PC and Enuchs, uh, UNIX systems . !!! ===> Be sure to mention the attachment-format you prefer. <=== !!! My formatted-text documents and columns that various volks have requested (and may copy-in-full and further-circulate freely) include: * Computer-Aided, Network-Based Government Access (20-print-transparancy overview of the issues, prepared for the Texas State Controller's 4th Policies Analysis Conference, 12/94) * How Citizens Can Pursue Practical, Potent, Net-Based, Computer-Aided Grassroots Political Action (4-print-page pragmatic tutorial detailing how one can conduct effective computer-based action, BW, 4/94) * Net-Power to the People: Use It! (5-print-page review of examples where it has been used for effective political action, plus an outline of underlying principles for how and why it works, BW, 11/94) * Implementing Mass Public Access to Legislative Information in Its Most Useful Form: How to Do It - At Almost No Cost (16-print-page generic implementation plan with justifying background, the document that supported placing California legislation online, 5/93) * Computerized Political Disclosures: Doing It with Minimal Cost and Maximum Utility (28-print-page generic implementation plan with justifying background, 1/94) Two columns about the new, half-billion-dollar National Wiretap System: * The Death of Freedom and Privacy in Amerika (MT 11/94) * Citizen Action Can Control NationŐs Wiretap System (MT, 1/95) [A similar, combined column appeared in BT, 1/95.] * Prepared Testimony Opposing Patent Protection for Software, presented as a Member of the Autodesk Board of Directors, to the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks as a Statement for the Record on behalf of Autodesk, Inc., 1/94) &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& "I had a strict rule, which I think secret services follow, too: no piece of information is superior to any other. Power lies in having them all on file and then finding the connections. There are always connections; you have only to want to find them." --Umberto Eco [via dbatterson@attmail.com (David Batterson)] Mo' as it Is. --jim GovAccess is a series of irregular postings & a distrib-list maintained by Jim Warren, GovAccess moderator; columnist, MicroTimes/Govt.Tech/BoardWatch 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/<# upon request> jwarren@well.com (well.com = well.sf.ca.us; also at jwarren@autodesk.com) & To add or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.com . & & Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation. & & Past postings are at ftp.cpsr.org: /cpsr/states/california/govaccess &