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From: DOUGLAS COFFMAN
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1993 18:01:53 EDT
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Please pass this info along.
January 31, 1993
Important Information RE: E-Mail to the White House
Yesterday, I saw several postings related to the E-mail address for the
White House. Along with a good number of others, I worked throughout the
campaign as part of a network of E-mail volunteers for the Clinton campaign,
so I can pass along some important information about that E-mail account.
The account is actually the personal compuserve account of Jock Gill. Jock
worked hard (along with a handful of programming volunteers, BBS operators,
listserver maintainers, and computer sophisticates at places such as Marist
College, MIT, San Francisco, Chicago, and elsewhere) during the campaign to
put together an E-mail system for national campaigning. The system was later
expanded to accommodate all three major Presidential campaigns. It was an
innovative, highly successful effort and it played a huge role in getting
campaign position statements out to a wide public. Things posted from that
address found their way into the virtual reality as the messages got passed
along many networks from their original posting.
Several weeks before the Inauguration of President Clinton, Jeff Eller
was appointed by the President-Elect to have overall charge of establishing
something which has never existed--an interactive public access E-mail system
into the White House and into other offices of the administration. Jock Gill
was then hired by the administration to work under Jeff Eller. Currently,
Jock Gill is working in an office located in the Old Executive Office
Building across the street from the White House. At this point, he is
working alone, without a staff. His current assignment is to use the E-mail
system (as during the campaign) to issue official copies of White House
statements, the texts of press briefings and press conferences, copies of
Executive Orders and Presidential Memos, and the like to the virtual world of
E-mail. Since the compuserve box is a regular personal mail box, it gets
filled quickly, especially given the high volume of mail now beginning to
arrive with the broad dissemination of his address. Those of you who have
sent E-mail to that address may well have received an error message stating
that the box is full. That's another way of saying it has been overwhelmed.
Jock has asked those of us who have been part of the volunteer E-mail
team to help him out while he works to get a good interactive system up and
running. Basically, he has asked that everyone cooperate and not begin
sending a barrage of E-mail to that compuserve address. The White House
itself employs a large staff to handle snail mail. Actually, at this point
in the development of the White House E-mail system, you will probably get
your message through to the administration quicker through ordinary snail
mail and telephone. Later, once the administration's E-mail team develops
the system they want and need, E-mail contacts should became the easier
route. All things in their time. Once the E-mail address was circulated
together with the heading the "White House", everyone understandably believed
a real system was up and running. Not quite yet.
SUGGESTION: Use the compuserve address you have judiciously, reserving
it for absolutely vital contacts. Until such time that a real public access
White house E-mail system is operational, consider relying on the traditional
means of contacting the administration. Given what they had to start with
from the previous administration (scratch), I have every reason to expect
that Jeff Eller and Jock Gill will work well--and as quickly as possible--to
get an interactive system up and running. But it will take time and
patience. We can all help them achieve that effort best if we refrain from
acting as if that non-existent system were already in place. PLEASE HELP
RELAY THIS CONTEXT AND SUGGESTION TO OTHER NETWORKS AND INDIVIDUALS. Thanks.
Snail Mail Address and Phone Numbers -- White House
White House Numbers:
The President (202) 456-1414
White House Comment Line (202) 456-1111
(To register your opinion on an issue)
When bill signed or vetoed (202) 456-2226
Vice President (202) 456-2326
(202) 456-7125
Mailing Address:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington DC 20500
--
On the Net,
Douglas J. "Lefty" Coffman
lefty@mtu.edu (Preferred)
LEFTY@MTUS5.BITNET or LEFTY@MTUS5.cts.mtu.edu
B0 f- w+ g++ k(+) s h r
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