This is an interview I did with Keith Glass about the changes with the Electronic Freedom March. He mentions making crypto an issue there. Rich -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- [This is an article from the may96 issue of the web zine _cause for alarm_, http://www.teleport.com/~richieb/cause. It may be redistributed electronically with this header included.] I contacted Keith Glass about an interview shortly after finding out that he had taken over as head of the Electronic Freedom March. The March, an attempt to influence Washington with a critical mass of geeks, was originally scheduled for June. In his response to my email, Keith said that the March was being rescheduled for late September and that he would make a public announcement soon. His subsequent press release said that, "With the current state of the case against the CDA, ACLU vs. Reno, and several organizational factors, it's been concluded that it would be far more effective to focus the political power of the citizens of the Net closer to the November elections." Keith joined me at Club Wired, after a hard day at work. --- CFA: Thanks for coming, Keith :) Keith G: And thus ends another thrilling day, standing for Truth, Justice, and/or the American Way <g> CFA: Heh. Keith G: Hey, a day at the Pentagon is like... a day in hell, only the cooking is worse. CFA: What do you do there BTW? If it's not classified? ;) Keith G: Nope: I work Pollution Preventions and Standardization issues for the Secretary of the Air Force. I'm a contractor, better known as one of the legendary "Beltway Bandits", although **I** prefer the term "Parkway Patriot"...;-) CFA: :) So, let's talk about the March. The new date is Sept. 29, tentatively? Keith G: Tentatively. I'm checking with the Park Service and the Majority Leaders' office in the next few days, to insure we can get a place... CFA: Where will the speakers be at, if you know? I mean human speakers :) Keith G: That depends on where we can locate. Since I'm trying to combine it with some congressional lobbying, I'd LIKE it to be on the west stairs of the Capitol. But the Ellipse, which we had reserved for the original date, would put us in shouting distance of the White House... CFA: *nod* Keith G: Of course, this thing has grown beyond JUST the CDA. In my opinion, it'll be wastepaper by mid-June. . . but we have to fight for crypto rights, and the ill-informed types who foisted the CDA on us will be back next year. This isn't just one battle... this is the start of a whole new political front. CFA: You're going to involve crypto issues? Keith G: Free speech is free speech. If they ban crypto, then they'd better make damned sure that envelopes are banned, too. Encrypted or clear, free speech is an absolute. CFA: *nod* Keith G: We also need to let the Congress know a few things about the Net: according to a pal of mine at CDT, your average Net user makes over $40K, and votes SIGNIFICANTLY more than not-Net-users. We have money, we have votes... it's time to turn that into power. CFA: So, you're in charge of the whole shebang now? Keith G: Yep. John Wash, who started this, got way too bogged down in work, realized it, and handed it off to me last Monday, April 15th... CFA: For those who missed your announcement, why the new date? Keith G: Well, to be honest, when I looked at what we had set up, AND what the Park Service required of us (i.e. portatpotties, medics, security), I saw we needed a LOT more money and organization than was possible for a bunch of part-time activists to get in the time remaining. Secondly, the CDA trial is going FAR faster than anything we had expected: the verdict will be out by mid-June, and from all reports, the Feds have been unusually incompetent in their arguments. So, I thought we should move as close as we can to the election, to (1) maximize our power, politically, (2) get a MUCH better organization in place, and (3) get out of the summer DC sun. This place is AWFUL in the summer... ;) CFA: :) Keith G: We need to let the Congress know that the Net is NOT all porno fiends, militia types exchanging bomb recipes, and all the other net.myths that seem to abound on Capitol Hill. Also, I'd like to work towards a declaration by Congresscritters that Email will be taken just as seriously as snailmail. Right now, most of the time your Congressional Email gets answered by a Bot... and that's the end of it. My friends on the Hill tell me they read email when all else is done... CFA: What about folks who can't make it to DC? Are you encouraging local events? Keith G: Locally, we'd LIKE to get all the people who CAN'T make it, visit their local Congressman and Senators offices' on the Friday before, or Monday after. And lobby, in person... CFA: Right. Keith G: I've gotten word today of a possible parallel EFM in Seattle. If we can get simultaneous marches in several cities, that'd be great. CFA: What can people do to help? It sounds like there's a lot of work to be done. Keith G: What do we need?? I've got webmasters, organizers, publicity types: I need a financial type, and some fund-raisers. We also need sponsors. We have NONE. We've been given a lot of "Sure we'll support you," but when we ask for $$, all of a sudden it gets real quiet. CFA: *nod* Have you had any reports of folks raising funds on the local level? Keith G: Not as yet. We're attempting to formalize a relationship with an existing non-profit, to use as a tax-deductible funding vehicle. We're also looking at selling T-shirts, and I've been approached with several business offers... CFA: Would you encourage local fund-raising for the March? Keith G: Absolutely. CFA: How did you get involved in net.activism? Keith G: How?? I went to the February 10th protest in Lafayette Park (behind the White House) that Tom Edwards put on. My first protest. The rest, well, it just sort of happened... CFA: :) The Feb. 10 protest was about the CDA? Keith G: Yep. Clinton signed it on Black Thursday, the 8th of February. Tom started the whole thing a few days earlier, and we got several hundred to turn out on fairly short notice. CFA: Are there other things that I, as an average net guy, can do to help? Keith G: Average net.guy... hmm... Well, when we get set up, buy a T-shirt, wear it to your Congresscritter's office. Also one or two particularly crafty ideas that I'm working on, but not ready to unveil yet (legal, non-violent, but potentially VERY politically effective...) CFA: Okay :) Keep us posted. Keith G: Oh, it will be on the web site... which I'm getting re-written... HTML 3.0, frames, Java, hot-and-cold running ASCII. <g> CFA: What's the turnout projected for the March? Keith G: Honestly, I don't know. **MY** original projections for the June rally were between 1 and 10K: John Wash kept saying 20K. If we can set up an organization of college students during the summer and have them recruit aggressively when school starts, we could hit 20K. We're also organizing amongst other communities that are more heavily wired than most: my first appointments were a Gay/Lesbian/Bi coordinator... I hope to get some help from the Pagan community as well... I already have plenty of hookups in Fandom... CFA: Cool :) Getting the word out seems very important now, with the changes... Keith G: Exactly. The Web site is among the top 5% hit, I have done my best to get the word out without overly spamming USENET. I know I'm going to about 15 or so lists... CFA: Jon Lebkowsky said you're doing the Club Wired EF forum? May 30? Keith G: Yep. Jon and I finalized that yesterday. CFA: Great. Keith G: Now, to beat that darned cyber-stagefright <g> CFA: :) What about multimedia stuff? Are there plans for video and/or audio from the March? Keith G: We're talking with NetRadio about a simulcast, one gent also is looking into a video feed, on the level of the Fish-cam. CFA: What about the roster of speakers? Any changes? Keith G: Not as yet.... but we're trying to get some bigger names. If anyone has an, ER, PIPELINE to Bill Gates or Mark Andreessen of Netscape, I'd be glad to chat. I'd like to get Barlow of EFF, maybe even Newt... CFA: Yes, a politician would be good. Maybe Leahy... Keith G: Leahy comes to mind. NOT Gore... unless we could boo him offstage... CFA: Heh. Keith G: I am NOT pleased with the two-facedness of the politicos over this whole thing... ESPECIALLY Clinton's, "It's unconstitutional but..." followed by his letter to Exon. Even if I WASN'T Republican, I couldn't vote for Clinton/Gore due to their utter fecklessness over the CDA CFA: The letter to Exon had me fuming, too. I'm getting tired of settling for the lesser evil... Keith G: Right: vote for the GREATER evil... dread Chthulu in 96 !!! <g> CFA: :) Well, anything else you want to add before I let you get some rest? Keith G: Nothing I can think of... our website is http://www.efm.org, and I'll post announcements to alt.censorship, comp.org.eff.talk, alt.activism, alt.wired, at minimum. CFA: Okay. Thanks for coming to talk :) Keith G: Anytime... --- rich burroughs <richieb@teleport.com> (april 26, 1996) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMYgTA4T0GKfZRA/9AQH8OwP+NjWJAuYHWRbMdDCVt6Wj6Nh3ZxJIj0lU DUXM8eJKEzI/CdOVGCUHYB7w3cQlCT6q1oNgiuiMGrWsd66WLR12Xmm/Zx1/pme4 egB5SB4Wuc96ZJ89q2qwuHG8V9FBzD2HJxFYLdHdadWMNpj5cM/DV1G1vCvFREz1 cSA5AsbCnuI= =SXzn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ______________________________________________________________________ Rich Burroughs richieb@teleport.com http://www.teleport.com/~richieb See my Blue Ribbon Page at http://www.teleport.com/~richieb/blueribbon New EF zine "cause for alarm" - http://www.teleport.com/~richieb/cause