from the EFFector re Senator kennedy

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

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Senator Kennedy Offers Info Online
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______________________________________________________________________________
from the office of
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     CONTACT:   PAM HUGHES
SEPTEMBER 14, 1993                                   202/224-2633
    


SENATOR KENNEDY IS FIRST TO OFFER DIRECT ACCESS TO CONSTITUENTS THROUGH 
COMPUTER OUTREACH




Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is the first member of the U.S. Congress to offer 
constituents direct access to his speeches, press releases and Senate 
statements through their personal computers.  In a pioneering experiment, 
Kennedy began posting releases in May on computer bulletin boards for reading 
by his Massachusetts constituents.


"Massachusetts citizens are among the most technologically sophisticated in
the nation," said Kennedy.  "By communicating directly with my constituents
in their homes, schools, and workplaces, I hope to make my day-to-day work
in Washington more accessible to the people of Massachusetts.  I invite 
Massachusetts citizens to take advantage of this inno vation in electronic 
democracy."


Kennedy's public statements are accessible on several computer bulletin 
boards, as well as in two USENET news groups via the Internet.  The bulletin 
boards provide a cost-effective way for voters to directly access information 
from Sen. Kennedy on various policy issues.  


Readers of the Kennedy releases may provide the Senator with immediate 
feedback on the issues by commenting via computer.  While all comments will be 
monitored, staff limitations will prohibit individual replies for the 
foreseeable future.  Constituents are encouraged to contact Kennedy's
Boston or Washington office by mail when a reply is desired.


Response during the summer experiment has been so positive that Kennedy's 
office has expanded its reach of bulletin boards and is actively alerting the 
general public about the availability of the Kennedy postings.  Comments from 
con stituents have included:


"I would like to thank you for making the effort to publish these press 
releases on our bulletin board.  It is admirable that you are sincerely making 
an effort to get your opinions out into the public arena..."


"I'm all for our elected reps getting 'with it'."


"I recommend that everyone check out the Sen. Kennedy press release 
conference..."


Senator Kennedy, who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, 
will play a major role in the Senate's consideration of President Clinton's 
comprehensive health care proposal.  The Labor Committee also has jurisdiction 
over federal legislation involving jobs and education.  Constituents
interested in these and other policy matters can read his electronic
postings to obtain up-to-date information.


North Shore Mac, a free bulletin board run by Jonathan Gourd in Beverly, 
Massachusetts, provides the home location for the "Sen. Kennedy Releases" 
conference.  This board can be reached at 508/921-4716 and can be accessed
with standard telecommunications software, or in its graphical interface
via 
Macintosh or Windows client software available for downloading on-line.  
Visitors can sign-on with the User ID: visitor, Password: visitor.


On the Internet, releases can be found in the following USENET news groups: 
ne.politics and talk.politics.misc


These releases are also available via anonymous FTP:
ftp ftp.ai.mit.edu, (login as) anonymous, cd incoming/Kennedy


Technical assistance and distribution to the Internet is provided as a public 
service by the Intelligent Information Infrastructure Project, at the  
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.