From: Shabbir Safdar <shabbir@democracy.net>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 11:22:57 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: INFO: Pro-CODE testimony available now online at democracy.net!
Message-ID: <199703241922.OAA28863@panix3.panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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 Enhancing Participation in the Democratic Process Through the Internet
_________________________________________________________________________
Update No.2          http://democracy.net/               March 20, 1997
_________________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents

 - democracy.net Cybercast draws Thousands to Interactive Hearing
 - Upcoming Events
 - Volunteering for democracy.net
 - About democracy.net
___________________________________________________________________________

DEMOCRACY.NET CYBERCAST DRAWS THOUSANDS TO INTERACTIVE CONGRESSIONAL HEARING

democracy.net, a project designed to explore ways of enhancing citizens
participation in the democratic process via the Internet, held its first
live, interactive cybercast of a Congressional hearing on Wednesday March
19th, 1997.

Thousands of Internet users joined this historic event by listening to a
live audio feed from the hearing (cybercast over the Internet via
RealAudio), submitting questions and testimony for the hearing record, reading
information about the hearing, and joining a simultaneous online discussion
forum to discuss the hearing with Congressional staff and policy experts.

The hearing was held by the Senate Commerce Committe to consider S. 377,
the Promotion of Commerce online in the Digital Era (Pro-CODE) Act and this
issue of US encryption policy -- a critical issue to the Internet user
community.

Some statistics from the event.

* 6,019 individual Internet users visited the democracy.net web site
  containing information about the Hearing, links to both sides of the
  issue, and other relevant information in the 24 hours preceding the
  event.

* 703 individuals listened to the hearing live online via Real Audio
  throughout the 3 hour event.  The actual Senate hearing room (Russell
  253) where the event took place only holds less than one hundred people
  when filled to capacity (as it was for this hearing).

* Throughout the event, between 20 - 50 people joined the simultaneous
  live chat discussion where Commerce Committee staff and encryption
  policy experts fielded questions and discussed the hearing.  The
  audience included individual Internet users, reporters, advocacy
  groups, and Congressional staff.

* Twenty-three Internet users submitted formal comments for the hearing
  record via the democracy.net web page, including IETF chair Fred Baker.

The democracy.net cybercast was promoted on the front page of Netscape's
World Wide Web site (one of the most popular destinations on the entire
Web) on March 18 - 19. The site is also featured at Progressive Networks
WebActive Site of the Week for the week of March 17-21.

Despite some technical bugs early on (par for the course for a cutting-edge
Internet event such as this), the cybercast went even better than we
anticipated. We are grateful to Brett Scott, Mike Rawson, Matt Raymond,
Mike Inners, and Pia Pialorsi of the Senate Commerce Committee staff for
their help and support of this effort.

Archives of the hearing are posted http://democracy.net/events/03191997/

democracy.net is a new project of the Center for Democracy and Technology
and the Voters Telecommunications Watch designed to explore ways of
enhancing citizen particpation in the democratic process via the Internet.
democracy.net is made possible through the generous support of Webactive
Panix, Digex, and the Democracy Network. Visit
http://democracy.net/about/ for more details.

______________________________________________________________________________
UPCOMING EVENTS

* April 10, 8:30PM EST - Online town hall meeting with Rep. Rick White
  (R-WA), Co-Founder of the Congressional Internet Caucus

* April 16, 8:30PM EST - Online town hall meeting with Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA),
  Key Representative from California's Silicon Valley and leader on Internet
  Policy issues.

* Additional events are in the works -- please visit http://www.democracy.net
  for more details, and sign up for our event announcement mailing list.

democracy.net town hall meetings will be moderated by Todd Lappin (Cyber
Rights Editor for Wired Magazine). The town hall meetings are designed to
bring interested members of the Internet community and key members of
congress together to discuss current Internet policy issues.

____________________________________________________________________________
VOLUNTEERING FOR DEMOCRACY.NET

A volunteer is needed to help index the RealAudio transcript of the
hearing.  If you would like to help, please do the following and mail the
results to webmaster@democracy.net.

To index the RealAudio transcript, please listen to the transcript and
watch the time counter at the bottom right of the page.  Please note the
following beginning and ending times:
   -whenever a new witness begins their prepared testimony and,
   -whenever a question and answer section begins.

Mail them to us at webmaster@democracy.net with the start and stop times
of each section.  Thanks!

____________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT DEMOCRACY.NET

The democracy.net is a joint project of the Center for Democracy and
Technology (CDT) and the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) to explore
ways of enhancing citizen participation in the democratic process via
the Internet.

To this end, democracy.net will host live, interactive cybercasts of
Congressional Hearings and online town hall meetings with key policy makers.

democracy.net is made possible through the generous support of WebActive,
PANIX Internet, the Democracy Network, and DIGEX Internet.  More
information about the project can be found at
http://democracy.net/about/

To receive democracy.net announcements automatically, please visit
http://democracy.net/
_____________________________________________________________________________
end Update No.2
03.20.97
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