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First let me say that all of the Representatives site's and most political party
sites that I have visited online were boring, ill conceived, unmanageable, often outdated
and sometimes non-existent. I hope they are not spending tax dollars on these things...
Let's remember it was just last year that President Clinton Said he was looking forward
to learning e-mail...
But the mainstream media says... JG
As the United States Congress becomes increasingly involved in regulating the Internet, most representatives show little facility in using the technology to communicate with the public.
In a special CyberTimes study to test how Congressional
offices handle e-mail, 70 percent of the offices surveyed did not respond specifically
to an e-mail inquiry. (The inquiry identified the sender as a reporter who
was testing how, if and when members of Congress answered.) Individual e-mail messages
were sent the second week of October to the 261 offices that listed public addresses
on Web sites that can be accessed through the Thomas Congressional site.
Overall, the number who responded to the inquiry represented 14 percent of Congressional
offices. Nineteen legislators responded personally, and half the returns came in
the form of automatic responses. Staff members who responded often expressed frustration with the medium.
The results of the e-mail survey showed some improvement from the response rate to a similar study conducted by CyberTimes in May 1996. In that study, in which 232 members with e-mail were surveyed, fewer than 20 percent of the offices responded. That study is not directly comparable to this year's study, though, because of changes in representatives and in the offices that offer public e-mail addresses.
However, the reasons for the low response rate remain largely the same: Answering
e-mail takes up staff time; offices cannot tally and track electronic mail the way
they track letters, and e-mail gives no way to identify messages from constituents.
In all, 48 percent of the members offered e-mail addresses from their Web sites as
of the second week of October. Seventy-three more, 13 percent of Congressional offices
offered access through secure Web mail systems that only constituents can use. Nearly
40 percent of Congressional offices , 202 members offered no form of electronic
communication at the time of the survey.
"E-mail in theory should
be the most efficient and, therefore, effective way to communicate with Congress,"
said Jonah Seiger, who left the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology
recently to become an Internet campaign consultant. "Part of the problem is
that it is still a new medium, something they are getting used to. It is still in
its early stages.
"But as a general rule, as an advocacy tool, it's
really not necessarily ever going to be the most effective way to have people give
their perspective to members of Congress for one reason:
it doesn't make noise."
But as the number of people who use the Internet surges past 40 million,
the preference for old ways of lobbying may lose ground. The House of Representatives
processes 750,000 pieces of e-mail a week and an estimated 37.5 million messages
a year, according to figures from the House Oversight Committee. For the week of
Dec. 11, the Senate received more than 150,000 messages, which is a typical weekly
take,
"
For those who do send e-mail, chances are they will not find
a quick reply when they log on a couple of days later. More likely, they will receive
a letter in the mail. Congressional offices send letters in response for two reasons:
the offices keep databases to track letters o systems in which e-mail is not easily
integrated and legislators fear that the e-mail they send could be altered en route.
Without question, many members of Congress embrace the technology. Some
see it as fast, simple and easier to manage than postal mail. Senator Max Cleland,
Democrat of Georgia, even runs internal tests to make sure his staff answers e-mail
promptly.
Of course, in many cases, the Internet community has become its
own worst enemy. The constant flow of drivel and spam into Congressional e-mail
boxes buries legitimate communication.
In many respects, such electronic
din strengthens the case for intelligent representation. Even though the technology
brings the possibility of direct democracy to a world where people vote for bills
via Internet instead of sending representatives to Washington it also demonstrates
the need for thoughtful decisions among representatives.
"The reason
we have a Congress rather than a direct democracy, the framers wanted to make sure
we had a thoughtful deliberation process, not an impassioned idea of the moment,"
said Bimber of the University of California. While using technology to improve constituent
contact is good for democracy, "it doesn't revolutionize the enormously complicated
process going on in Congress," Bimber said.
"Even if it makes
it easier for people to communicate, that doesn't necessarily portend better representation.
For the foreseeable future, it means better representation for a few."
But if Congress hasn't gotten the knack of e-mail, clearly the members are catching
on to the Internet, at least in one-way broadcast mode. Congressional Web sites are
sprouting every day o 30 new ones have gone up in recent months o full of information
about legislators' bills, backgrounds, press releases and speeches.
To Chris
Casey, that's a good sign. His job is to help Congressional offices use the technology
as adviser to the Senate Democratic Technology and Communications Committee, As
more members use the technology, Casey believes, more will support it instead of
attack it. He saw that theory at work during the debate over the Communications Decency
Act; senators who had Web sites were less likely to support Internet censorship.
"I think that there is a very real correlation between members and their staffs being Net-savvy to their being equipped to dealing with issues relating to the technology," Casey said. "I'd be more comfortable having a member who knew a URL when he saw one."
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