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28 lines
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28 lines
1.6 KiB
Plaintext
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This file contains a short article on the impact one Bulletin Board
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system (BBS) can have in the local enviroment. Be sure to read if you
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are a SYSOP or travel the bulletin boards.
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THE IMPACT BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEMS AND LOCAL INFORMATION EXCHANGE
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SYSTEMS CAN HAVE ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS.
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The following message was left by Fred McCamic on the RECYCLENET Bulletin
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board in New Jersey, Jan 85.
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Do you wonder what difference a computer bulletin board could make? Beg,
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borrow or steal the March 1985 issue of "Whole Earth Review", turn to
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page 89, and read "The Neighborhood ROM": Computer Aided Local Politics".
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It's an interview of Dave Hughes, a retired U.S. Army Colonel who runs a
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bulletin board in Colorado Springs.
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Two years ago, it seems, Hughes spotted a small legal notice regarding
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an ordinance that would have regulated working at home. He attended the
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planning commission meeting, and was alone in speaking against the ordinance.
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The commission agreed to table the ordinance for 30 days, during which time
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he posted the text on his BBS, and wrote just two letters to editors
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suggesting that people could dial his BBS. In the next 10 days, over 250
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people called the board.
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Some 175 aroused citizens attended the next city council meeting. At least
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one person submitted revised ordinance text to the BBS. The planning board
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made four successive revisions of the ordinance; each one was posted on the
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BBS. When the final version came up for a vote, no one had anything to say
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-it had already been said on the BBS.
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ed on the
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BBS. When the final version came up for a vote, no one had anything to say
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-it had already been |