Using FaxModems and E-Mail as Tools of Social Change (page 3 of 3)
By Carl Davidson
Networking for Democracy

PeaceNet also provides electronic conferencing. Think of this as going to your local post office and renting not only a mailbox, but also a conference room. Not only does your conference room have a table, chairs and a blackboard and bulletin board. It also comes equipped with file cabinets, phones, and newswires and fax machines. The file cabinets are full of useful information; the fax machines are pre-loaded with the fax numbers of the major national media and every member of Congress.

Now think of your post office as housing not one conference room, but 500 of them. In each room a series of presentations is going on around a different topic related to social change. In some rooms, it's one speaker after another droning on in an unrelated fashion. But in others, the discussion is lively, with much discussion and debate. In some, the top is so hot and so many people want to get in on it that the group breaks up into smaller sub- topics in other rooms.

With PeaceNet, you can bounce around from one room to another, just listening in. Or you can get into the discussion yourself. Or you can note the names of the speakers and talk with them privately outside the room.

If your group wants to obtain a PeaceNet conference room to publicize and get a response to its own ideas, it's possible to set one up. It's also possible to get a "private conference." This means that the only people allowed in are those on a list of E-mail names supplied to PeaceNet ahead of time.

The editorial boards of various publications whose editors are scattered around the country, for example, often use private conferences. In this way, they can read, debate, criticize or reject articles without having to all is in the same place at the same time. In fact, one way to look at such a conference is as a "perpetual meeting" that goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Each individual in the meeting, however, can come and go as he or she pleases. In addition, there is a complete written record of everything said that anyone can respond to at any time without waiting for the chair to call on them.

All of this has immense practical use, especially for progressive groups trying to work together over long distances or even in a local area where scheduling is difficult. It also has many revolutionary implications for theories of democratic organization, especially in the sphere of flattening leadership hierarchies and empowering individuals and groups at the base.

One of the most democratic features of PeaceNet, finally, is its low cost. There is a $15 initial sign-up fee. After that, it's $10 a month, which includes one hour of access time per month. It usually takes less than five minutes to check and get your mail, or send mail to someone else. After the first hour each month, your access time is billed a $5 per hour at night or $10 per hour during the day. Over a year, a small office using mainly the E-mail services can figure an average of $20 per month. The phone call to log on is simply the price of a local call, even if your sending mail to someone in Australia. It's a bargain no matter how you look at it.

Carl Davidson is the managing editor of Insight Features. He is also the editor of `FIRR News' and `FIRR Notes,' published by the Chicago-based Federation for Industrial Retention and Renewal, and the director of Networking For Democracy, a cluster of Chicago-based projects providing computer and media assistance to grassroots organizations working for social change.