THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060503
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
With a low-tech snip of a yellow ribbon, Republicans on Thursday opened the nation's latest onramp to the electronic information highway, inviting computer users to plug into the government the GOP now controls.
``It allows us - for the first time in a mass democracy - to have a genuine dialogue on a large scale,'' House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. ``This will allow us to begin to have electronic town hall meetings.''
The new congressional on-line access system, called THOMAS, consolidates information already available on scattered computer networks. Within weeks it will offer modem-equipped users access to the Congressional Record, bill digests, and summaries and chronologies of legislation.
Gingrich, a professor and enthusiastic futurist, said as more information makes its way onto the network, Americans on main streets and back roads from Maine to California will have the same information as the loftiest power brokers in Washington.
``If every citizen had the access to information that the Washington lobbyists have, we would have changed the balance of power in America towards the citizens and out of the Beltway,'' Gingrich told an overflow audience at the Library of Congress. The library is coordinating the new service, named in honor of Thomas Jefferson.
The Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press reported in May that 12 percent of American households have computers hooked up to modems, which link computers by telephone.
Despite the small number of households that can take advantage of the new service, congressional reform groups and open-government activists called Thursday's announcement a small but crucial step toward obtaining free on-line access to most government documents.
With the click of a mouse button, THOMAS users will be able to read bills of the 104th Congress, perform searches by bill number and keywords, examine the rules of the House, and obtain directories of members' electronic mail.
``This is, in effect, a one-stop shopping center,'' said Suzanne Thorin, the Library of Congress' chief of staff. ``And when the system gets very oiled, it will be available quickly in an easy-to-use format.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
GOING ON-LINE
Here is a look at THOMAS, a congressional on-line information
service that was launched Thursday.
Consolidates information already available and scattered on other
networks.
Adds full text of bills for the 104th Congress, access to the
Congressional Record, a file with summaries and chronologies of
legislation, and indexes for lengthy bills.
Comments on the new service through the Library of Congress' mail
gateway can be sent to thomas(at)loc.gov.
Uniform resource locator is: http://thomas.loc.gov. A link to
Thomas also is available on the Pilot Online's Local News page,
available through Infinet. See details below.
by CNB