From: marc@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 93 17:35:31 PDT
To: marc@mit.edu
Subject: [daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU : FYI: White House EMail]
Message-ID: <9306020112.AA09458@bill-the-cat.MIT.EDU>
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[5834]  daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Farber) Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet 06/01/93 20:26 (90 lines)
Subject: FYI: White House EMail
Date: Tue,  1 Jun 1993 20:25:47 -0500
From: Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>
To: com-priv@psi.com

             THE WHITE HOUSE

              Office of Presidential Correspondence

______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                             June 1, 1993  

     
          LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT
      IN ANNOUNCEMENT OF WHITE HOUSE ELECTRONIC MAIL ACCESS
     
     


     Dear Friends:

     Part of our commitment to change is to keep the White House 
in step with today's changing technology.  As we move ahead into 
the twenty-first century, we must have a government that can show 
the way and lead by example.  Today, we are pleased to announce 
that for the first time in history, the White House will be 
connected to you via electronic mail.  Electronic mail will bring 
the Presidency and this Administration closer and make it more 
accessible to the people.  

     The White House will be connected to the Internet as well as 
several on-line commercial vendors, thus making us more 
accessible and more in touch with people across this country.  We 
will not be alone in this venture.  Congress is also getting 
involved, and an exciting announcement regarding electronic mail 
is expected to come from the House of Representatives tomorrow.

     Various government agencies also will be taking part in the 
near future.  Americans Communicating Electronically is a project 
developed by several government agencies to coordinate and 
improve access to the nation's educational and information assets 
and resources.  This will be done through interactive 
communications such as electronic mail, and brought to people who 
do not have ready access to a computer.
     
     However, we must be realistic about the limitations and 
expectations of the White House electronic mail system.  This 
experiment is the first-ever e-mail project done on such a large 
scale.  As we work to reinvent government and streamline our 
processes, the e-mail project can help to put us on the leading 
edge of progress.  

     Initially, your e-mail message will be read and receipt 
immediately acknowledged.  A careful count will be taken on the 
number received as well as the subject of each message.  However, 
the White House is not yet capable of sending back a tailored 
response via electronic mail.  We are hoping this will happen by 
the end of the year.

     A number of response-based programs which allow technology 
to help us read your message more effectively, and, eventually 
respond to you electronically in a timely fashion will be tried 
out as well.  These programs will change periodically as we 
experiment with the best way to handle electronic mail from the 
public.  Since this has never been tried before, it is important 
to allow for some flexibility in the system in these first 
stages.  We welcome your suggestions.

     This is an historic moment in the White House and we look 
forward to your participation and enthusiasm for this milestone 
event.  We eagerly anticipate the day when electronic mail from 
the public is an integral and normal part of the White House 
communications system.



          President Clinton        Vice President Gore
     	  
     PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV      VICE.PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV


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