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To access links, see Steven Clift's blog: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=252 Post: Thank You! DC Gathering Wednesday, Congress and E-mail A big thanks goes out to the 50+ people from 20+ countries who endorsed by e-democracy work and Issues Forums in the context of my potential Ashoka Fellowship: http://www.dowire.org/wiki/Support_for_Steven_Clift I'll be in going in front of their review panel over the next few days. Wish me luck! Also, on Wednesday a few of us are getting together over lunch on Capitol Hill (you know, where they serve Freedom Fries not French Fries ... hmmm perhaps we'll send a few freedom e-mails to Congress via our wireless devices ...), details and to RSVP: http://www.dowire.org/wiki/DoWire_on_Capitol_Hill Finally, we've had a good exchange via DoWire comments on the web about Congress and e-mail. I wanted to point out a new resource on The Reasoning Behind Logic Puzzles from the respected Congressional Management Foundation. Steven Clift Democracies Online P.S. Here is some text from their final page on the topic: What�s the Next Step? This problem did not happen overnight, and it will not be solved overnight. In fact, CMF first described this problem in 2001 in our report E-mail Overload in Congress: Managing a Communications Crisis [PDF � 218 KB]. Pressure from the advocacy community and citizens may encourage some Members to stop using the logic puzzles and other captcha tools, but it will not solve the root problem. Instead of escalation, what�s needed now is diplomacy. To facilitate this diplomacy, in 2004, CMF launched a long-term project, the Communicating with Congress project, to help improve communications between citizens and their Members of Congress. The first phase of the project focused on understanding how congressional offices manage constituent communications and learning which communications are most effective. Now, we are turning our attention to the other side on this communications process: citizens� and the grassroots community�s perceptions and practices for communicating with Congress. To understand how citizens and the grassroots community are communicating with Members of Congress, what motivates them to do so, and what expectations they hold for these communications, CMF will conduct research with citizens, grassroots organizers, and others who facilitate communication between citizens and Members of Congress. Questions we will address through a nationwide survey and interviews include: * What percentage of the general public communicates with their Members of Congress and how often? * What role do organizations play in facilitating public efforts to communicate with Congress? * What motivates citizens to communicate with their Members of Congress? * What do citizens want to receive in response to their communications to their Members of Congress? * What are citizens� perceptions of the communications they currently receive from their Members of Congress? * How might congressional practices change to better meet citizen expectations and preferences? * How might the grassroots community�s practices for generating grassroots campaigns change to better meet citizen expectations and preferences? The research will lead to the publication of a second Communicating with Congress report and additional training for congressional staff and the advocacy community on the research findings to improve the communications practices of both parties. The research and reports will offer targeted guidance for improving practices and will lay the groundwork for more collaborative problem-solving. By themselves, however, they will not be sufficient to bring about the change necessary to transform communications practices on both sides. That will require a forum for decision-makers from the House, Senate, the public, and the advocacy community to: discuss the problems and misperceptions; devise collective solutions for solving the current problems; and articulate common practices for fostering the new Web-enabled communications tools. CMF also hopes facilitate this dialogue by helping to organize a task force comprised of decision-makers and representatives from the Senate, House of Representatives, advocacy community, and vendors that facilitate electronic communications on both the sender and receiver sides of congressional communications. It is our hope that, at the conclusion of CMF�s Communicating with Congress project, there will be a new model for communications between constituents and their elected officials�a model that reduces or removes the current frustrations, facilitates increased citizen participation in the public policy process, and increases a meaningful democratic dialogue that benefits our country. We encourage congressional staff and the various organizations that represent citizens� interests to participate in and contribute to this research by contacting us. *** Democracies Online Newswire - http://DoWire.Org *** To comment/for links: http://dowire.org/notes/?p=252 To network: http://groups.dowire.org Submit posts: http://dowire.org/submit Member profile for Steven: http://groups.dowire.org/main/contacts/stevenclift ----------------------------------------- Group home for Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail: http://groups.dowire.org/main/groups/newswire Replies go to members of Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/topic/121757 For digest version or to leave Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail, email [email protected] with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. Newswire - Steven Clift's blog posts by e-mail is hosted by Democracies Online - http://dowire.org.
