Sounds to me that these guys don't want to hear from inside the Beltway folks like me. How about some of the left coast folk? ------------------------------ From: Richard Civille <rciville@civicnet.org> Fri, 18 Mar 1994 21:07:24 -0500 (EST) Cc: ace-mg@esusda.gov, alt-politics-datahighway@eff.org, bluemt@cni.org, com-priv@psi.com, communet@uvmvm.uvm.edu, ednet@mr.net, libnet@mr.net, net-people@nic.state.mn.us, nii-regional@rain.org, nii-summit@cni.org, nii_agenda@civicnet.org, publib@nysernet.org, pubpol-l@vm1.spcs.umn.edu, roundtable@cni.org, ruralnet@gibbs.oit.unc.edu, telecomreg@relay.adp.wisc.edu, board@cap.gwu.edu Subject: Public Interest Summit Organizing Kit Shaping the National Information Infrastructure Public Interest Summit -- ORGANIZING KIT -- NOTE: Use this electronic mail address for contact: <summit@tmn.com> Your participation is essential to making the Summit responsive and effective. We are sending you the enclosed "kit" of questions, organizing suggestions, and formats for sending your discussion materials back to us. This is a call for you and your organization or group to discuss the information highway issues -- as YOU see them. Send back your replies for lead ins to the panel discussions, and as questions and concerns for panelists and Administration officials to consider -- as soon as you can. Please use the questions listed below to help organize your discussion group. It is important to hear as many voices across the Nets as possible, as soon as possible. However, it is even more important for us to use the Net to go beyond the Net. We hope the following ideas will be helpful in organizing discussion groups in classrooms, in church, at work, at home; in service organizations, and activist groups; for radio call-in talk shows, local cablecast panel discussions and anywhere where people meet to talk about what is important to them. We must move very quickly to make this work and we need you. Remember, we are talking about beginning a wave of change this week, that will grow in power and momentum beyond the Summit and into the Spring and beyond. -- Registration -- Register with us to become an organizer/moderator of a discussion group (either on-line or off-line). Send e-mail to <summit@tmn.com> with "register" as the subject line and a brief description of your project and group. If you cannot email, see the alternative contact points below. We will work for broad discussions among the online communities but we believe that it is ultimately the "real world" that will make the difference here, not simply Cyberspace. We encourage you to organize off-line discussion groups and send us the summaries using the questions and formats given below. -- Video Opportunities -- This is a media event. We are also searching for good, brief, video shots. Do you have good local public media contacts? Do you know of good video opportunities -- important new voices that should be heard, projects in your community using information technologies for good public benefit that should be recognized? Tell us about them as soon as you can. Send your ideas to us at <summit@tmn.com>. We are prepared to work very quickly with local public television and cable access groups, who can tape and Fedex the tape to us for inclusion in the program. Video shots must be a maximum one minute in length. We must have all tape submissions received no later than Friday, March 25th and earlier if possible. -- Questions for Discussion Groups -- 1. What is important to your group? 2.What does your group want in terms of connectivity to the NII? 3. What does your group want not to happen with the NII? 4. What special requirements do you have that might be missed in the national planning for the NII which is taking place now in Washington, DC? 5. What would you be able to do with the NII, that you would not otherwise, if you did not have to worry about the cost of access? 6. What one key question would you want the Administration to give you an explicit answer to about the NII? 7. How can you describe the positions your state and federal representatives are presently taking on your concerns about the NII? -- More Ideas -- You might consider several scenarios such as these for your discussion group. Make up your own! * Print this notice and take it to your group (church, class, work place lunch, family) for discussion, summarize the results, and send them to us. * Use the questions for a discussion item in your local community or civic network and report back with summaries of key points. Direct, attributed quotes are very helpful. Pose questions directed to specific panelists or to specific issues. Organize a local press conference. * Help increase the spread of the dialog by taking these questions to people and groups well beyond your own networks of friends and acquaintances, whether online or offline. Fax this Notice all over town. Photocopy fliers and distribute. Get these materials into the hands of those who are not members of online systems. -- Contacts, Format and Deadlines -- Please e-mail results of discussions back to the Public Interest Summit to <summit@tmn.com>. Include: - Your name - Name of online community, community/civic network or organization - Describe the process you used for your discussion (was it a working lunch, a bridge club, a call-in talk show, who moderated, how was it organized, etc.) - e-mail address of contact person, or phone if email is not available Please provide a summary, and several vivid highlights, and direct quotes that can be attributed to real people. No more than two pages or 4k. Please e-mail group discussion summaries by Sunday, March 27 at the latest. Videos must be received by the 25th and not be longer than one minute in length. The earlier the better, there is a great deal of pre-production work to be done. Things earlier will be summarized and posted to gopher servers under the menu heading: "Public Interest Telecommunication Summit" including new questions as they arise. If you cannot email you can contact the Summit production team through: The Benton Foundation 202-638-5770 (voice) 202-638-5771 (fax) Pat Farrell Grad Student pfarrell@gmu.edu Department of Computer Science George Mason University, Fairfax, VA Public key availble via finger #include <standard.disclaimer>