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Building Local Civic Nets
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1992 19:21:10 CST
From: Steve Cisler Report: CPSR Public Policy Roundtable 2/20-21 1992 "Cyberspace
Citizenship: Building Local Civic Networks"
copyright 1992 Steve Cisler
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Washington Office and
the 21st Century Project
This was the fourth roundtable hosted by CPSR in less than a year.
Sponsored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Rockefeller
Foundation, 53 people were invited to "explore new modes of
democratic participation, various civic computer network projects, and
multi-media innovations that could promote local civic networks."
The goals for day one was to talk about democratic participation,
multi-media design, and existing network projects. After the
self-introductions were finished we were aware of just how diverse a
group we were. Librarians did not organize the meeting, but they
represented more than 10% of the participants.
A few of the other organizations present included:
plus a variety of writers, consultants and think tank members from the
Washington, DC area.
March Rotenberg of CPSR facilitated the first group: "Political
participation and the Role of Small Groups" The thesis was that today's
fragmented society makes small group meetings difficult to organize
and participate in. "This places representative governance at risk by
limiting direct governance at the local level. ...Can today's network
technologies be adapted for the needs of small groups? How can social
activists and civic leaders use public access cable, conference calls, fax
machines, and advanced network technologies to encourage the
formation of small groups and to broaden public policy debates?"
Dave Hughes described the use of his BBS to influence elections in his
home town of Colorado Springs. Whereas most other participants
agreed that technology was only a means to an end, Hughes said that
"technology is politics, " and that the debate to consensus is an
important process that can be easily done on a bulletin board or
conferencing system. Judith Perolle of Northeastern University was
interested in getting emotional content back into the small group
interactions that used computer technology. Richard Sclove, a
democratic theorist and activist from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
made six points about the use of technology in democratic action:
Charles Firestone of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies
recommended Electronic Commonwealth by Abramson and cautioned
that equitable access in a pluralist society may give some groups
familiar with the use of technology more power than their numbers
would indicate. [Those groups would see this as a legitimate leverage
to be used to gain or maintain power.]
Jim Warren described his use of voter records to begin a grass roots
campaign against policies that affected the unincorporated community
where he lives. He has also been posting important bills from the
California Legislature on The WELL and taking the feedback to the staff
in Sacramento. They have now joined the discussion and even made
some suggested changes in the wording of the bill. This process has
taken less than two weeks. [His success would seem to affirm the
claims of Dave Hughes. I wonder if the novelty of the medium is part of
the reason for success. How would it scale if every state, local, and
federal bill were available at no cost to the user who could make
comments and voice electronic opinions? Obviously, there would have
to be more people in government to deal with this new flow of
influential information--unless less time were spent on other activities
(see the section later in the report on government ATM kiosks).]
Some of the problems are: Traditional values are being changed. He
described electronic information in colonial terms. GIS data is being
refined and sold back to tribes in formats they can't access. The GPO
WINDO would confound the problem of Indian access to information.
There are 26 Indian colleges, but they are not connected to the
Internet. In online discussion groups Indians find their comments
censored by Anglo gatekeeper system operators. He also mentioned
researchers' grants that include information carpetbagging where use
of Indians in grant process won points and tipped the scale for an
award, but in the end the Indians did not benefit.
Baldwin had positive comments on some developments: Fidonet BBS
relays for Russell County Montana where American Indian artists are
posting artwork using the NAPLPS graphics standards. ENAN, the
Electronic Native Amercian Network, institutionally affiliated and
funded by the BIA, is doing a pretty good job. He mention a one week
old group, the Iowa Indian defense network, and handed out a draft
paper "Networking the Nations: American Indians and Information
Technology". Day two was supposed to culminate in the outline of a
handbook that could be used by state and local policy makers, civic
leaders and activists. Although this did not happen, there was a very
positive feeling about the processes that began during the two day
meeting.
Andrew Blau of the EFF had been with the National Federation of
Local Cable Programmers. He said that the national communications
policy is at odds with local civic involvement. There was a mention of
the FCC's video dialtone proposal which, as formulated, would cut out
local communities.There needs to be network architecture with
network localism.
Frank Burns of Metasystems Design Group described the Santa Monica
Public Electronic Network project which was heavily supported by HP
and Burns' group. The computer conferencing system has remained
very open within the existing community (i.e. no censorship of
postings) but it has restricted use to city citizens and property owners.
Its proximity to Los Angeles caused the planners to keep the system
from hooking up with other localities, though they are experimenting
with links to a sister city in Japan.
Carol Henderson of the ALA: How do we make information policy issues
compelling? She described some of the services that come from
public libraries Determine welfare eligibility online. Provide
government services of various types in a more efficient, less
labor-intensive manner. We later discussed the idea of dispensing tax
forms automatically in order to free up the librarians from this sort of
clerical work.
Michael Strait of the Annenberg CPB Project described some of the
different mixes in various communities for a network to function. The
Annenberg/CPB Project is involved in a number of ventures including
Higher Education Within Reach aimed at older and part-time students,
the new majority in higher education.
During Lunch Frank Odasz of Big Sky Telegraph in Dillon, Montana,
described the growth of BST in 1988 from a multi-line BBS linking
114 one-room schools in Montana to the present system that still links
schools but also womens centers, economic development workers and
provides online courses, self-paced, computer conferencing, mail links
to the Internet, and access to some local databases. Surprisingly, one
room schools had less trouble getting telephone access than did
teachers in larger schools. Other agencies are using BST as a teaching
and information publishing media. A library media specialist for the
Office of Public Instruction at the capitol has created and taught a
course entitled "Information Access Skills for Rural Educators."
The first afternoon session was "The Community Network Drop:
Access, Services, Costs and Benefits" Richard Civille, the conference
organizer, led a discussion of the kinds of services people might want
or use. John McMullen, a writer for Newsbytes, commented on the
difficulty in getting his peers to understand why these network
services are important to the average person. Tony Lewis of the
National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, said that those
pushing for public access had to be more proactive at a time when the
country seemed to be moving away from a democracy. He urged
technocrats to understand the implications of the products they come
up with, and to remove as many barriers to use as they can.
Mehl Simmons of the National Association of Social Workers discussed
the Tulare County (CA) project which set up 31 kiosks to electronically
sign up welfare recipients. Of the 300,000 receiving Aid For
Dependent Children, 20% use the touch screen system, and most
seem to like it, partly because the social workers were overloaded with
clerical work. Grant aid was received in 6 days instead of 45 days.
Evelyn Pine of Berkeley, CA, Community Memory felt it was important
to be able to discuss welfare as well as getting welfare checks.
However, Michelle Meier, Consumers Union. said that the cost savings
are not as great as they had thought for some projects and that there
may not be any, and that recipients needed protection when
converting from paper-based to electronic forms.
In as sense there was a fuzzy dividing line between those who saw the
networks as part of an infrastructure to cut costs, make transactions
faster and more efficient, or get structured information from an online
source and those who were using the networks for discourse, for
trading tips, for social organization and collaboration.
Steve Miller, State of Massachusetts, made three points: In the
commercialization cycle an online service enters the market as an
experiment, perhaps in a playful way. Those who really get into it start
getting a new vision. There is a destabilizing element as it is partly
accepted and partly rejected. The status quo is restructured, and at
some point people will realize that the service will only be generalized
when it becomes commercial. At this point it becomes useful for many
groups. They always kept in mind the need for goals. Serving the needs
of member organizations in the state, as well as tourists, helped.
Technical impediments: He said that technology should help people
get something done, that it should be graduated and extensible,
keeping in mind the users' desire and ability. "Unless we do top down
policies carefully, we can squelch grass roots efforts."
David Reed of the FCC discussed his graduate school thesis, the
engineering, economic and policy analysis of fiber in the subscriber
loop. of a theoretical neighborhood. There are not a lot of applications,
Start with POTS, plain old telephone service, and add distributed or
switched video service. There are not economies of scope, so it's better
to have separate networks: video and the copper pairs for voice.
Integrated network is not cheaper. Telcos business future is not
attractive for them to go into fiber service. He explained how the common carrier model divides content from
transport. Switched video might allow more flexibility in the common
carrier approach. Transport people (the phone companies) want to
provide content or it will be too costly to install the fiber, and the goal
of Universal service becomes very expensive in this case. Strong
incentive to commercialize content and this can threaten privacy
protections.
What followed was a general discussion of the uses of civic networks
and the different choices that some had made. Santa Monica PEN
limits the user membership to members of the community and does
not provide mail connectivity to the outside world (Los Angeles and
beyond) in order to preserve a sense of place and the culture of Santa
Monica. All groups in the city, including the homeless, are encouraged
to use the system.
The last afternoon session was "Designing Network Products and
Services for Citizen Participation" which summarizes the underlying
dilemma for many of the participants: that it is hard to make the case
for democracy in the market economy (Andrew Blau). Many seemed to
accept the fact that the market economy, even during a
recession/depression, is the guiding principle for many managers,
planners, and developers. At the same time they felt that democratic
ideas should prevail. As Richard Sclove said, "Economics should not be
democracy's sovereign."
There was mention of a November 1992 CPSR conference in
Cambridge on participatory design. Gary Chapman mentioned the
success of Scandinavian models, and said that corporate decisions
sometimes shut off debate about designs. Bob Jacobson urged people to
read the forthcoming Byte magazine which contains an article on the
ideal information system. He personally is interested in how virtual
interfaces can be designed to strengthen democracy. Bruce Koball
suggested that perhaps the groups needed some firm principles like
the American Library Association, against which to measure new
proposals and devices.
John Harris works with Alan Westin's Reference Point organization,
dealing with the 'bright side of information' --how to help non-profit
organizations publish their information electronically. Reference point
is a central clearing house for 70,000 information referral systems.
Public libraries and BBSs are key partners to these systems.
Kit Galloway of Electronic Cafe International in Santa Monica uses
videophones and the public switched telephone network to link up
artists, poets, politicians, and average citizens all around the world.
With 60 affiliates ... Galloway brought a different perspective to this
group because of his artist/techno-populist background. He showed a
video of links between Nicaragua and the cafe, and it was evident that
the inexpensive devices did contribute to a sense of shared community
for the parties that were thousands of miles apart. Galloway realizes
that some of his ideas are not commercial and refers to himself as an
avantpreneur.
Discussions continued over dinner for the next few hours, and
afterwards Dave Hughes spoke about his meeting that afternoon with
the staff from "60 Minutes" who are planning to do a program on
Information Rich--Information Poor and look at NREN network access
issues, the NSFNET controversy (the House is scheduling hearings for
March to look into NSFNET governance.)
Friday, February 21 a.m. State and local policy initiatives I had battery
problems and lost my notes for this session where Pru Adler discussed
the WINDO proposal and the activities of the Association of Research
Libraries in pushing for more access to federal information. James Love
of Taxpayers Assets Project is also involved in this effort and is pushing
to open up access to the SEC's Edgar program as well legal and
legislative databases generated by the federal government.
In the second morning session (Local civic networks in metro areas)
Paul Resnick of Rainbow Pages (617 787 6809) demonstrated an audio
bulletin board to announce Peace Events in the Boston area. Most of the
callers were in the Peace movement, but it was also used by LaRouche
followers (who eventually had to give a name and number for the group
posting an announcement) and the Young Americans for Freedom.
Kari Peterson of Davis (CA) Public Access Cable Television discussed
the role of local television in the community and mentioned the
ambitious project starting in conjunction with U.C. Davis, Pacific Bell,
and municipal agencies to provide ISDN service to campus and city
residents.
Sharon Rogers of the Gelman Library, George Washington University,
described the organization process under way for DC FreeNet. It began
with a false start: social service agencies wanted to have a Free-Net that
crossed jurisdictional lines. They were really not in that business, and
they turned the whole process over to Rogers and her staff but still
wanted to be part of it. The model they are following: financing is by
the university; and 1300 agencies and organization have information
available already; the target is to get one representative to manage that
part. They are working with schools, homeless shelters, and other
groups for outreach. "We are creeping toward visibility," said Rogers.
After lunch I hosted a session on rural community and American Indian
networks. I began the discussion with some selections from Ithiel de
Sola Pool's Forecasting the Telephone which described changes in
rural communities because of the telephone as well as the grandiose
predictions that never came to pass.
Lauren-Glenn Davitian of Burlington, VT, Cable TV was joined by Merri
Beth Lavignano of the University of Vermont Library in a description of
the state's political structure, the fiber infrastructure, and the fact that
about one-third (70) of the rural libraries have no phone!
Randy Ross of American Indian Telecommunications runs a Fido BBS
and has worked on the repatriation of Indian artifacts by the
Smithsonian Institution. He believes that technology and cultural
integrity of native peoples can co-exist. As part of an Indian leader
thinktank interested in rural telecomms policy he is looking at the
strategic agenda for Indian nations for the next 500 years to see how
are they going to exist in a pluralistic society.
Frank Odasz of Big Sky Telegraph examined what rural communities
could do with almost no budgets. Setting up 'tiny sky' bulletin board
systems and creating 'info-scouts' for disseminating information in
small communities was having positive effects in Montana. Odasz is also
interested in a rural thinktank for telecomms options.
The final session brainstormed ideas for a document that would inform
civic leaders of all types about what to expect from a civic network,
different success stories, examples of hot issues that emerged during
the organizing process, and cost studies for existing systems. The cost
of doing these projects was not discussed very much prior to this
session because many of the people there were not looking at the
bottom line. They felt it was a necessity and should be done. Economic
feasibility was not the primary issue; finding funds to underwrite the
projects was an undercurrent at this meeting of primarily non-profit
advocacy groups.
We spent the final hour going around the table giving each person a
chance to sum up (most difficult) and tell what they learned or what
affected them most of all.
The diversity of the lessons learned and the observations made was
really quite astounding. Some saw the event as seditious; others
thought it was a bit too tame. Some felt more useful acting rather than
talking. Lee Felsenstein of Community Memory described his
involvement the Homebrew Computer Club in the 1970's in Silicon
Valley. They accomplished things by doing not by meetings and long
deliberations. A few felt the anti-business undercurrent was not being
realistic. As people expressed the desire to continue sharing by giving
out their phone or BBS number, Frank Burns and Lee Felsenstein typed
in a quick database of these numbers which reached most of us the
next day.
----
Papers, books, and reports suggested by panelists. For further browsing
telnet into dra.com and use the search by LC Call Number to see
related titles in the same subject area.
Abramson, Jeffrey B. The electronic commonwealth : the impact of new
media technologies on democratic politics. New York : Basic Books,
c1988. HC110.I55 A27 1988
Baldwin, George D. "Networking the Nations: American Indians and
Information Technology" Barber, Benjamin R. Strong democracy : participatory politics for a new
age Berkeley : University of California Press, c1984. LC Call Number
JC423 .B243 1984
Empowering networks : computer conferencing in
education Michael D. Waggoner, editor. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. :
Educational Technology Publications, c1992. LC Call Number:
LB1028.43 .E47 1992
Geller, Henry. Fiber Optics: An Opportunity For A New Policy?
Annenberg Washington Program. 202 638 2745. (I'm trying to get an
electronic version of this for posting.)
Pool, Ithiel de Sola. Forecasting the telephone : a retrospective
technology assessment .Norwood, N.J. : ABLEX Pub., c1983. LC Call
Number: T174.5 .P66 1983
Ronfeldt, David. Cyberocracy, Cyberspace, and Cyberology: Political
Effects of the Information Revolution. Rand Corporation Paper P-7745.
(ronfeldt@rand.org)
Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859. Democracy in America. New York :
Vintage Books, 1990. LC Call Number: JK216 .T7 1990
Wired cities : shaping the future of communications / edited by William
H. Dutton, Jay G. Blumler, Kenneth L. Kraemer. [Washington, D.C.] :
Washington Program, Annenberg School of Communications ; Boston,
Mass. : G.K. Hall, c1987.
Next posting will be for the 2d Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference
which leads off a chain of meetings (CNI, Net '92). Comments, corrections, and
suggestions are solicited. This report may be reproduced in whole or part by
non-profit and educational groups on fileservers, BBSs, conferencing systems,
or in newsletters and compilations.
Steve Cisler, Apple Computer Library
From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum
Subject: Building Local Civic Networks
Subject: Report: Building Local Civic Networks, a CPSR Roundtable
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