Regards,
Norm
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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
~ N E W S ~
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Media contact: March 17, 1997
Beth Gaston, (703) 306-1070/egaston@nsf.gov NSF PR 97-22
Program contact:
Preston Rich, (703) 306-1282/brich@nsf.gov
GOVNEWS PROJECT TAKES DEMOCRACY INTO CYBERSPACE
The International GovNews Project has announced a special government
category on the Internet's Usenet news system. The creation of this
new category lays the groundwork for the wide, cost-effective
electronic dissemination and discussion by topic of large amounts of
public government information.
Through the Usenet system, GovNews will be distributed through
thousands of linked Internet servers throughout the U.S. and the
world. Millions of people will now be able to follow and comment on
government activity in selected areas of interest without extensive
surfing on the Web. Schools, businesses and households, without
powerful computers and high-speed connections, will now be able to
use less complex systems to get rapid access to federal agency
information through newsgroup servers located right in their own
communities.
The project is the result of a collaborative effort between
international public and private sector volunteers seeking to make
government more open and accessible to the people.
"The U.S. government is taking a leadership role in providing a
technology that could change the face of democracy around the world,"
said Vice President Al Gore in a letter about the effort.
Usenet news is a broadcast technology somewhat analogous to the
Associated Press (AP) newswire service. Reporters from the AP or from
newspapers supply information to the AP network which is in turn
redistributed by newspapers across the country. Likewise, messages
sent to Usenet from authorized sources or from individual users are
broadcast to more than 200,000 servers worldwide which in turn supply
messages to tens of millions of individual users.
"If the World Wide Web is the Internet's library, Usenet is its
newspaper," said Preston Rich, NSF's FinanceNet Executive Director
and leader of the International GovNews Project sponsored by the U.S.
Chief Financial Officers Council. "For the first time, the GovNews
newsgroups on Usenet will facilitate the delivery of government
information to your cyberspace doorstep."
According to Rich, official notices, news, announcements, reports
and publications from government agencies will be sent to a beginning
set of more than 200 new specialized newsgroups.
"The newsgroups are logically organized by topic from privatization,
procurements and emergency alerts to toxic waste and marine
resources, and include the capability to discuss such information,"
he said. "GovNews is just keystrokes away."
While active on the World Wide Web for some time, governments have
not until now been able to use the special advantages of the Usenet
system. The strength of Usenet has been its capability to
rapidly deliver important new information, news and announcements,
organized by topic, direct to users through a wide network of
Internet servers. Usenet also provides an efficient forum for public
discussions on topics of interest.
In addition to the efficient dissemination of government news by
topic, GovNews also opens new opportunities for developing public
participation and discussion of government news by topic, while
providing for important citizen feedback to government
administrators.
"GovNews can be today's `town meeting,' where it is easy for anyone
to participate," Rich said.
-NSF-
Editors: For more information, see: "http://www.govnews.org/" Also
see "http://www.govnews.org/govnews/info/majorpubs.html" for a list
of major US Government serial publications now being broadcast in the
new government newsgroups.