electronic democracy: approaching at megabit speed!

[ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu]

This came from the `privacy digest' mailing list. Of particular
interest is the opening & `onlining' of government databases. Also note
that the noted Sen. Leahy has expressed serious concern over the
Clipper and is chairing hearings on it.

`mood of declassification'?
`require more openess throughout the bureacracy'?
`electronic mail to improve citizen participation'?


WOW!

Some words that have been coined to describe this kind of thing for
future sound-bite reference: `modemocracy' (saw this in a Compuserve
magazine) or `netocracy' (my own coining)


===cut=here===

   [ Original posting source: nigel.allen@canrem.com in 
             igc:alt.news-media -- MODERATOR ]

 White House Official Outlines Freedom of Information Strategy
 at 'Information Summit'

 To: National Desk, Media Writer
 Contact: Ellen Nelson of The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center,
          615-321-9588

   NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 13  -- A White House official
today outlined a broad open government strategy for
the Clinton administration, throwing support behind legislation
to apply the Freedom of Information Act to electronic records.
   "At the Clinton White House, most of the debate over the E-mail
system is about how we can interconnect it to public services rather
than how we can destroy the records or tear out the hard drives
before the subpoenas come to reach us," said John Podesta, assistant
to the president and staff secretary.
   Podesta made his comments in front of 70 participants in the
nation's first Freedom of Information Summit, sponsored by The
Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.
   Though the economy dominates the headlines, Podesta said the new
administration was quietly working across a broad front to open
government.  His "predictions for the first year," included:

   -- Working with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) to win approval
this session for a bill allowing access to dozens of electronic
databases in the federal government.
   -- Developing an electronic mail system within the federal
government to improve citizen participation in government.
   -- Making the government's archives available on the nation's
"information highway," and appointing a national archivist "who
cares more about preserving history than about preserving his job."
   --Creating a "mood of declassification" with new executive orders
from the president outlining what government may keep secret.
   -- "Reinventing government" under initiatives developed by the
fall by Vice President Gore to require more openness on the part of
civil servants throughout the bureaucracy.

   Podesta also pledged lobbying reform and political reform to "get
rid of the soft money in campaigns." The Freedom of Information
Act may need strengthening in addition to electronic access, he said.
   Pinched by a dozen years of tight information policy, news
organizations have sent President Clinton a freedom of information
policy paper calling for wholesale personnel changes in FOIA-related
jobs, junking the secrecy classifications of President Reagan's
Executive Order 12356, overhauling the Freedom of Information Act and
ending military censorship of war reporting.
   "People working on behalf of the public on more openness in
government at all levels are heartened by the prospect of the White
House taking the lead in this area," said Paul McMasters, executive
director of The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt
University.
   The conference, sponsored by The Freedom Forum First Amendment
Center at Vanderbilt University, is focusing on issues ranging from
the Clinton administration's policies on open government to
restrictions on public access to crime, accident and disaster scenes.
The conference, open to the public, is at the Stouffer Hotel in
downtown Nashville.
   Speakers on the Clinton FOI Agenda included Richard Schmidt Jr.,
general counsel to the American Society of Newspaper Editors and
partner in the law firm of Cohn & Marks in Washington, D.C.; Theresa
Amato, the director of the FOI Clearinghouse in Washington, D.C. and
staff counsel for Public Citizens Litigation Group in Washington,
D.C.; and Quinlan Shea, former Carter administration official who
discussed problems of access to government.  Former American hostage
Terry Anderson will give the keynote address at the dinner tonight.
   The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University
is an independent operating program of The Freedom Forum.  The
Center's mission is to foster a better public understanding of and
appreciation for First Amendment rights and values, including freedom
of religion, free speech and press, the right to petition government
and peaceful assembly.
   The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan, international organization
dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people.
It is supported entirely by an endowment established by Frank E.
Gannett in 1935 that has grown to more than $700 million in
diversified managed assets.  Its headquarters is The Freedom Forum
World Center in Arlington, Va.
 -30-
--
Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario
416-629-7000/629-7044