Electronic Democracy
Part III & IV
by Dave Hughes

September 17
============

If a Congressman - besides doing those costly mail-outs to
individuals in their district *also* put the bills and issues
'on line' locally, a whole lot more people could become
involved. Then all that is needed are for some of those
organizations like the League of Women Voters and similar
public interest/issues local groups to set up terminals and
printers in public places to help those who can't do it for
themselves, get the information and *feedback* their opinions.
A whole new role for non-partisan public-interest groups will
have to emerge before this works like it can, should.

The first 'loop-back' of the online debate over the County
operations occurred last night and this morning, which
demonstrates how the online electronic democracy needs to be
linked with other forms of public communications.

Don MacDonald, KVOR morning talk-show host dialed in last night
to Chariot and learned at log-in to Roger's Bar (the public
issues section) about the 'County' conference and the verbatim
committee report. He was *really* exited and said to me in
private mail that he was going to dive in this morning to the
county fee-collection flap, which one Commissioner managed to
get suppressed in the final report.

So this morning at 7:15 he dialed back with his Macintosh,
flipped on the printer, and printed out the 30 or so
response-discussion about the fee collection, including the
case law, statutes, tables of figures and most importantly, the
comments made about all this by the 'public' online. He took it
to the studio, went on the air at 9:00 am for his 2 hours talk
show, READ ALOUD extracts of the print out, including the
statute, the figures, and the comments by the man who put the
stuff on line and expressed concern. Then invited call ins.

About 50% of all the back-to back callers to the show took up
on this issue. He asked me to call and say on the air how
people could call state "home" offices for Members. There is
much your local office could do to support your interest in
being involved and communicating with your representative.

Oh I am sure there is some very expensive online Legislative
Service in DC. But this Republic will *not* move into the
Information Age politically when 'public information' costs $50
an hour. And it does *not* have to cost that much. It is the
economics of] 'government' at work here, not the economics of
people. I costed out the capital investment required to set up
a system like Chariot's in Denver for one man, using a PC, an
optical reader, and a unix/xenix system with the capacity to
hold 100% of all legislation going through the Colorado State
Legislature, for online fee-charging access. $20,000 total cost
to capitalize the business, charges of from $5.00 an online
document to $200 a month for 24 hour unlimited access by such
entities as newspapers, lobbyists, organizations. Guaranteed to
have all daily amendments online within 2 hours of the close of
the legislative day.

The guy who would run it could make a living at it!

I am radical enough in my online Electronic Democracy views
that I believe that the US government should set up terminals
in Post Offices for free public use, that guarantees all US
citizens free access to *all* public documents - up to some
specified level each month, fee charging above that.

[Continuing the earlier story] I was asked to call into the
radio station, did, told everyone that all were welcome, gave
out the number, and people are now dialing in across the town.
And this afternoon Commissioner Meier asked for instructions on
how to log in, would it be free or would he have to subscribe.

Something to think about on this 200th Anniversary of the
Constitution, when thinking about bbs and small conferencing
systems and Electronic Democracy. Someone complained on a BBS
in town which contained some passionate arguments during the
last days of the Sales Tax campaign that 'only 30 people were
reading this bbs'. The Sysop (who himself had been a County
Commissioner before) reminded everybody that history tells us
that the Federalist Papers were only distributed to 100 people
during the American Revolution. It ain't how many, but who.

September 24
============

Our little experiment in Electronic Democracy is at least
forcing the decision-makers to think harder - even in the
media. After getting a printout of the discussion of the County
fee flap, by a reporter, a senior editor gulped and backed away
from a story on one aspect because he was afraid the paper
would be sued!! And one of the County Commissioners spent 18
minutes online this afternoon, just looking. Meanwhile the
Public Health Director added to his spirited defense of his
Department, against the recommendations of the committee.

Now a little side note - that I'll bet is chronic in electronic
debates. Three County Commissioners met in secret and read a
print out of the whole conference, gotten off-line by one of
their people who did not identify himself as such when he came
online. And they seem concerned and uncomfortable.

How do you think I, as sysop, should handle the phenomenon of
'government employees/elected officials' in mufti online?

The Pikes Peak Journal - small town (Manitou Springs - adjacent
to Colorado Springs) newspaper, which is the political base for
the Chairwoman of the Commission - Marcy Morrison is now online
in the thick of things, because a developer-backed woman named
Brooke Sunderland is going to run against her. Brooke has asked
to talk to me. So I shall offer her the opportunity to come on
line and debate Marcy online.

Then the voters can decide for themselves.

No guarantee they will. But then as it slowly dawns on
candidates that online *everything* they have to say will be
'published' (which is never the fact in other media), they just
might do it. But what's new? 5 years ago a man running for
County Sheriff against two well heeled candidates, one the
incumbent, came on my BBS and said he was going to announce his
candidacy online - and tell the press to dial in to read all
about it. (They did). I told him he would never win that
election from a BBS because the base of callers was too small
then. His answer was insightful. "I don't have much of a chance
anyway. But this BBS is issues, not personalities and
advertising oriented. I think there are some issues that need
to be discussed. So I choose this forum."

He was right. He lost, but the issues he raised online were
picked up by monitoring candidates, and they argued them in
public! Stay tuned!

September 26
============

In some hot voice exchanges the editorial director of a local
television station, which carries a nightly editorial, and has
lately been yammering away about the Budget report, has asked
for a logon id and password to Chariot. That makes two
newspapers, a radio station, and a television station that are
into the political discussion area online.

And today, when I was picking up my copy of "Teledemocracy"
which started out this item, the wife of the book store owner
who is the President of the Colorado Springs Symphony was
asking about it, and now is going to come on line (as she said
"Our symphony has a computer!") to 'correct all the
misstatements in the press about the subsidized> Pikes Peak Center.' The Symphony depends upon the
center, which is new, classy, and costs the taxpayers $230,000
a year in subsidies (so that groups can use this public
auditorium at a reasonable rate). Since most on line are saying
'get rid of the center, its not mandated by state law!' the
voice of the cultural community is needed to cast more light,
than heat, on the issue.

So I guess if we can have people arguing the pros and cons of
county programs for ugly child abuse, and jail cells, and how
much or whether people should pay to hear Mozart or watch
Sleeping Beauty in the cultural center, we must be reaching a
representative spectrum of voters.

In a *very* quick glance at Chris Arterton's book
"Teledemocracy" (you know, jump to the index to see if your
favorite topic is there - computer conferencing, then read it
while driving home) I see the same set of assumptions everyone
has when speaking of the use of computer communications and
political discussion. That he seems to be considering only
those who can *directly* go online. And he discussed Source,
EIES, Delphi and a few others. Not a mention of a grass roots
BBS that I can see, which is too bad, because he cites the
economics of online services as a big deterrent to their use in
political democracy. I think he, as other, simply greatly
underestimate the number and variety of devices - few of which
will be called 'computers' - which everyone will be using. And
already are - such as touch tone surveys, some with instant
feedback to radio and tv figures online, who can, before the
program is over, discuss the response.

In any event, since some of you on here seem to think this
discussion rather enlightening, any objections to my printing
it out and sending it to Chris?

------

September 27
============

We will have Electronic Democracies when terminals are popular
in Washeterias! And when 'get out the vote' groups drop off
terminals all over town.

Since I have to read Arterton in bits and snatches I will
report in bits and snatches. Only computer-telecom permit
incremental book reports! Chris makes one very important
decision at the outset of his book. While most who talk of
electronic democracy see the end of our current forms of
'representative' government, he thinks that whatever changes
are made will only affect that form, not replace it with some
form of populism! Good for him. Only place I differ is I think
that the 'representatives' may themselves be in control of some
media. Like sysops. "Vote for XXXX. He will make a great Sysop
while in Congress!"

October 4
=========

I just got a copy of Sept 29th, Wall Street Journal where Bob
Davis writes an article on 'Hobbyists as Lobbyists" Computer
Users Are Mobilized to Support Host of Causes".

Reports on the staggering response to the FCC $5 access charge
ruling, and other uses of networks for 'tele-politics.' Also
mentions the use by Peace Net, National Association of
Manufacturers, Bruce Babbitt, and even my own City Councilman
Wayne Fisher "In Colorado Springs, Colo Wayne Fisher says his
underdog candidacy for city council took off when he posted his
platform of local electronic bulletin boards and answered
comments from voters electronically." (I am pleased he is
willing to view it that strongly - since I referred the WSJ to
him when they called me. And one never knows how an office
holder views the relative significance of electronic democracy.

End of the article is interesting:

Predicts Roger Craver, a political fundraiser and computer
enthusiast, "In five years, information utilities will be the
conventional means of communications for organizing and
political advocacy."

Next Chapter of the County Budget Saga. After some rapid
exchanges online, the Budget Committee and I caught a
television station in a flim-flam! And got it reversed. The
station that runs editorials and invites rebuttals gave the
Citizen's Committee and its work a hot blast. I requested a
chance to rebut. Even sent in my 60 seconds of text. Which
invited them - as well as the public - to dial into the online
discussions to get the *real* story, from the actors
themselves, and not just the press. They choked on it. Although
the FCC requires TV stations to respond to such requests an
mine in 72 hours, they tried an end run and called a 'safe'
committee member, *inviting}i* him to give an editorial on the
air. Didn't tell him that there had been a hot blast by them at
his Committee *or* that they had a prior request for a
rebuttal. He took them at their word.



Said he would call back and give them an answer. He checked
with another committee member who was online in the county flap
on Chariot and saw where I said I had asked for rebuttal time.

So - in swift online electronic time - we huddled, and the
member who was 'invited' to give an editorial called back the
TV station's editorial director and chewed her out for what he
viewed as an unethical journalistic act, said he wanted me to
give what I wanted to give.

So, caught in the act because online asynchronous communications
let we the 'public' keep tabs on things better than we could
have otherwise, the TV station had to swallow hard, call me and
offer me air time I will tape the editorial tomorrow morning.
And even more people will dial in.

Hmm. Maybe electronic 'vigilance' will keep more than
government honest.

October 5
=========

Now things are *really* heating up! Many things broke today
almost too rapidly for me to keep up. While I was taping the
rebuttal inviting all to dial in), the Commissioners in a
set-up deal tried to further discredit the committee's work by
dissolving it, letting the staff 'rebut' some of its more way
out recommendations (while remaining silent on many unanswered
questions of far greater moment.)

The press, of course, dutifully reported on it on the 5 o'clock
news. Twill be in the papers tomorrow. My rebuttal will run
tomorrow evening - in which I call for the Committees work to
be a beginning, not an end, to the review of the County review
of operations. I will follow it up with a letter to the local
editor, being even more specific. I will also write the
Chairwoman of the County and request - on a floppy disk - the
staff rebuttal of the original report. Which I will dutifully
put on line, paragraph by paragraph paired off with the
original entries. (I have already uploaded my 60 second
editorial rebuttal to the original tv editorial which was taped
and transcribed by a committee member).

Of course in all this, I keep making the message - come on line
and deal with the facts, the copies of the laws, the display of
budgets, as well as the opinions as to what they mean.

Television images fade, newspapers are thrown out, radio talk
is forgotten. The online record remains...just a modem dial
away...right through the next election.

October 6
=========

Proof that it is getting serious. Call from a Commissioner "Ok
now, talk me through the log on procedure again so I can see
that discussion..."

Even the candidates privately deplore the necessity of
trivializing their campaigns by making everything fit the 10
second television-rejoinder length. Ultimately self defeating
for the whole political process.

And also to the point of the ability of the candidate
organizing the debate around his or her own media - electronic
- I spent an interesting hour at the County Courthouse today.
Went there to pick up a copy of the 24 page staff 'rebuttal' to
the 24 page Budget Committee report in order to put *it*
online, juxtaposed against the committee recommendations.

I knew something was up when 3 of the 5 commissioners, and the
county administrator came into the one commissioners office
where I went, and launched into an *extended* discussion of
what they had read 'online' and even barking at me for things I
had said there. (It became immediately apparent that they were
printing out *everything* and passing it around the county
offices.) Every time one of them started making an eloquent
defense of their views and attacked something said online, I
said "Put it online! Speak for yourself there - so that the
PUBLIC can learn from the dialogue. I am not a Reporter."

Passions are running high on this one. Since comments I have
made in the conference are being attacked by BOTH county
officials AND committee members I must be doing something right.

It is clear they got the point - if you want the discussion of
your operations carried out to the point of resolution,
consensus, or 'agree to disagree' (and then vote) then go
online and say all you have to say. Everyone gets heard. In
detail. On the issues, facts, authorities.

So I said "Say, can you give me this 24 pages on a floppy
disk?" Everybody scrambled and in 15 minutes the County
Administrator rushed in with a floppy disk. (I didn't have the
heart to tell them they gave me a Dec Displaywriter formatted
disk - which I can't easily read in ASCII off an MSDOS machine,
but I will solve that, and teach em what ASCII is.) So now they
get *their* views out, in full text. After going on the 5:30
news in a 60 second editorial-rebuttal - in which I said
"Fortunately technology permits us to be discussing these
matters on computer bulletin-boards all over town" - I got
calls asking for the modem number. And the Committee member who
did one depth analysis - which was boiled down to a one
paragraph recommendation in the report, now wants to upload his
sub-committee report where all the justifying meat is.

While the County Commissioners 'fired' the Budget Committee
yesterday, the debate over the budget has just begun. And I had
to restrain myself from smiling when I saw that the elected
county officials are taking this *very* seriously. And now know
they are welcome - yeah expected - to participate, if they want
their viewpoints to get as full an airing as that of the
critical public.


October 7
=========

Beautiful, proper use of this medium in the controversy today.
Dr. Muth, in response to a question about the County Health
Budget and how it compares with other Counties in Colorado,
took the time to prepare, and upload two *tables* comparing 10
counties on a per capita, percentage, and absolute basis. Shows
his Department is quite economical. Also displayed the average
salary for his professionals. Now is getting remarks like 'Your
staff is underpaid" etc. Complete turnabout in the initial 'cut
our taxes' attitude.

Ugly, improper use of the medium -- I was at an affair tonight
where the Governor attended, thus drew a pretty politically
savvy crowd. Woman came up to me and said "I hear that
Commissioner Meier is dialing up a bulletin board in town and
slandering the County Clerk and Recorder" I said "I am sure it
is my BBS he is dialing up, but he hasn't make a single comment
about the Clerk and recorder. She said, well the Clerk has her
Lawyer reading it so she can sue for slander.

Ha! Next thing we will all be in court trying to get a Judge to
log on.....

But the *real* point came out. She said "His own Party
(Republican) is going to take care of him for that." I
retorted "You had better dial in and read for yourself what is
being said, rather than listen to rumors." She said "I think I
will. We now have a modem." Glad to have her -she is the
Chairwoman of the Planning Commission! Another agency online!


---------
Author's note: This discussion is still continuing hot and heavy
and chances are it will be of significant interest in this election
year.