Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site islenet.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amdcad!decwrl!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!noscvax!uhpgvax!islenet!bob From: bob@islenet.UUCP (Robert P. Cunningham) Newsgroups: net.followup Subject: Re: Lets get 1600 Penn. Ave on the net. Message-ID: <803@islenet.UUCP> Date: Sun, 2-Dec-84 11:20:47 EST Article-I.D.: islenet.803 Posted: Sun Dec 2 11:20:47 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 5-Dec-84 00:44:02 EST References: <330@stcvax.UUCP> <6133@brl-tgr.ARPA> Organization: Hawaii Institute of Geophysics Lines: 34 White House and other executive branch staffers already use an "executive electronic mail service" to exchange electronic mail between themselves, supplied by Compuserve Information Services. There is also limited use of ARPANET/MILNET for similar purposes. About half of the offices and staffs of the House of Representatives use Dialcom, and probably some Senators' staffs. I'll conjecture that there may also be some limited use MCI Mail and other similar services. I think that's a remarkably good beginning towards an involvement in "Worldnet" (the concept of a universally useful world-wide inter-connecting collection of computer networks, see the last few years back issues of Human-Nets for further information and extensive discussions). And I'll venture to predict we'll see considerably more interest in, and use of various computer networks by portions of the U.S. government during the next decade or so. Meanwhile the White House and Congress get almost more citizen feedback than they can handle through traditional media: U.S. mail, telegrams, telexes, etc. plus news and views published in major U.S. and foreign newspapers and on the various television networks. Those are precisely those channels of communication open to most U.S. citizens and the media watched by most people. Pragmatically, I wouldn't expect to see publically-known electronic mailbox(es) for the White House until there is considerably more use of the various electronic mail networks by a larger number of people and recognition of that fact at the White House. (Perhaps around the turn of the century key U.S. government officials just might sit down and review mod.worldshaking.developments in preference to viewing the nightly network TV news or scanning the New York Times :-) -- Bob Cunningham ..{dual,ihnp4,vortex}!islenet!bob Honolulu, Hawaii