From: Richard Seltzer To: Richard Seltzer Subject: *CAL* Chat reminder: Grassroots democracy -- Is the Internet making a difference? Thursday, Jan. 20 Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 12:34 PM *** BUSINESS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB -- WHERE WORD OF KEYSTROKE BEGINS *** Please join us this Thursday, January 20 to chat about Grassroots democracy: Is the Internet making a difference? What does this have to do with business? Think of all the ways that government touches/influences your business and also key concerns of your customers and partners and suppliers. Not just politics, but the day to day administration of government and all the complex rules and regulations involved. That information you need, that regulatory body you need to get in touch with, that lobbying organization you'd like to ask for help -- everybody's on the Web. But is it making a difference? Yet? Last Friday, I saw a segment on the NBC Nightly News about how car recalls don't work: people with used cars don't get the notices and many people who do get notices don't do anything about it. It occurred to me that maybe recall info could/should be fed into state vehicle inspection systems. A simple idea. No big deal. Perhaps it's the right thing to do, perhaps not; but I think it's worth considering. As an experiment, I sent an email with that idea to state and federal elected representatives from my district, and to those presidential candidates who have email addresses clearly indicated at their campaign Web sites (surprisingly, only two of the top five do). So far, the only response I have received was an automated impersonal email from Senator Kerry's office, which arrived today (four days after my message was sent). You can see the gist of my message and account of my attempt to make a difference in my newsletter Internet-on-a-Disk, http://www.samizdat.com/news33.html I'm curious -- to what extent is the Internet making a difference in how we deal with government, in how we try to influence change? And what is the most effective way to use the Internet for grassroots democracy and/or for the kinds of government interaction that's necessary for business? Please let us know about your experience and insights. These chat sessions take place Thursdays 12 noon-1 PM (US Eastern Time = GMT -5). Connect to the Web-Net Web site http://www.web-net.org Once you are there, click on "Richard Seltzer's Chat: Business on the World Wide Web." Complete, edited transcript of all past sessions are available at www.samizdat.com/chat.html You can also see our upcoming schedule of topics there. Please send email with your follow-on questions and comments, suggestions for future topics, and requests to receive email reminders about upcoming sessions. Best wishes. Richard Seltzer seltzer@samizdat.com Internet evangelist/writer/speaker/consultant For details, check http://www.samizdat.com/consult.html PS -- While chatting, I keep my webcam on. If you'd like to see me "almost live" (updated every 5 seconds), open a second window and check it out at http://www.samizdat.com/cam/livenetcam.html All you need is a browser. (Thanks again to Anthony Alvarez, alvarez@acunet.net)