THE 105th CONGRESS - THE WIRED ONE?
Lacking many other accomplishments, the 105th Congress may be able to lay
claim to bringing most of its members online. At the end of the 104th
Congress in 1995 about 69 Senators had e-mail addresses, and 41 were on the
web. In the House there were 168 members with e-mail addresses, and only 93
on the web. The 105th Congress will come to a wrap with many more members
online. Ninety-seven Senators have e-mail addresses, and 99 are on the web
(see Update #17 for the holdout). In the House there are about 343 members
with e-mail, and more than 400 on the web. With member turnover, those
numbers will start a bit lower in the 106th Congress. Keep a close eye on
the freshmen to see how quickly they get online. Most of them had their
campaign's online, will wiring their offices be a priority?
If you're a head counter like me, the best source of a single listing of Congressional e-mail addresses and URLs is still at the University of Michigan Document Center courtesy of Grace York. Check it out...
Grace York's Congressional E-mail & Web Address List
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/congress/conemail.txt
IMPEACHMENT E-MAIL TRAFFIC JAM
In a repeat of last September's Congressional Internet crunch (See Update
#19) when demand for the Starr Report and the high volumes of e-mail to
members of Congress in response ground the Hill on the Net to a screeching
halt, Congressional servers were once again pounded and e-mail gateways
backlogged. Shortly after having removed a second web server that had been
installed to spread the Starr generated load, the Senate put it back in
service to once again deal with unexpectedly high demand. Similarly
additional e-mail gateways were added to handle hundreds of thousands of
incoming e-mail messages. The crunch on the House side was mad worse by a
bug in the House's e-mail program and was reported in the below stories by
CNN.
Bug slows impeachment e-mail to House members - 12/16/98
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9812/16/housemail.idg/
Microsoft blames old software for House e-mail slowdown
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9812/17/housemail2.idg/
AND THE WINNER IS...
At the Fifth Politics Online conference held at George Washington University
earlier this month, a new award was established to recognize, well...
politics on the Internet, particularly campaigns. Let me let them use their
own words...
"With the GOLDEN DOT AWARDS, the GSPM establishes an annual award that will inspire and nurture civic excellence by online political activists by lauding the achievements of those whose efforts have met high standards along the following four dimensions: Substance, Innovation, Interactivity and Public Accountability."
And if you like awards, keep an eye on the PoliticsOnline Site for their 'Best of the Political World Wide Web'
The Winners of the 1998 Golden Dot Awards
http://www.gspm.org/politicsonline/winners.html
PoliticsOnline
http://www.politicsonline.com/
START YOUR ENGINES FOR CAMPAIGN 2000
Looking forward to a breather between campaign seasons? Don't bet on it.
While some candidates in '98 didn't bother putting up a campaign web site
until late in the cycle, I expect that more and more you will find the
online campaign signaling the start of the season. By that measure the 2000
races are underway. Former Senator Bill Bradley is the first Presidential
contender out of the gate that I've seen, and Freshman Senator Rick Santorum
has begun his online re-election campaign as well.
Bill Bradley Presidential Exploratory Committee
http://www.billbradley.com/
Rick Santorum for Senate
http://www.santorum2000.org/
HELLO FROM HELSINKI
Guess what? I'm going to Finland. Seems they're hosting the 2nd
International Congress on Electronic Media & Citizenship in Information
Society (guess I missed the first). Well, it's gonna be webcast live, so if
you don't have anything better to do at about 4:00 am (Eastern) tune me in
online :-)
2nd International Congress on Electronic Media & Citizenship in Information
Society
http://www.kolumbus.fi/pi99/
That's all for now!
Cheers,
Chris
Copyright ©1998 by Chris Casey
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