Re: WH email petition.

[dmandl@lehman.com (David Mandl)]

> In general, petitions are a notoriously ineffective way to lobby.
> That's doubly so for email versions, for obvious reasons.  Even
> without that problem, an electronic petition will (rightly) be ignored
> on the grounds that it represents the opinions of a small elite
> minority.  With signatures collected in the streets and shopping malls
> of America, you have at least some chance of reaching a cross-section
> of people.  But on the net?  (And even if I'm wrong about the net's
> population, would they know it?)
> 		--Steve Bellovin

In general, I agree that petitions are a major waste of time and energy;
I'm also pretty convinced that this White House email link is a big scam.
Why are they any more likely to take your mail seriously just because it
comes over the phone lines and not in an envelope?  Seems like a pretty
transparent PR ploy (also an attempt to make it seem like the White House
isn't a bunch of dinosaurs now that everybody and her nephew has an email
address).

But since it won't take much more than a couple of minutes of any of our
time, I can't see an electronic petition hurting our cause any--especially
because it'll certainly include the names of many esteemed professionals
and braniacs with fancy scientific, corporate, and academic credentials.
I think this could be a nice propaganda coup if it got publicised.

It could at the very least give a big black eye to the forces of evil.

   --Dave.