Thanks for making this such a successful event!

[Bob Carlitz <bob@giotto.info-ren.org>]

On behalf of Information Renaissance and its project partners,
the Environmental Law Institute and the Environmental Protection
Agency, I would like to thank our moderators and panelists for
helping to structure a very productive, insightful and
thorough discussion.  We hope that the present event may serve
as a model for future efforts at broad public participation.

The greatest thanks and the credit for the Dialogue's success
must go to you, the participants in this event.  A National
Dialogue is part of an effort to democratize the process
by which our government functions.  This may sound like a
paradox in our democratic society, but there is a fundamental
problem that technology has in part created and that
technology may in part help to remedy.  This has to do with
specialization and the culture of experts.

Some degree of specialization is necessary when we are dealing
with complex issues and working within large systems.  And
there is a need to solicit the advice of experts in the
evaluation of technical proposals that may be on the table.

The Internet democratizes this process in two ways:
1- It provides a superb mechanism for educating people about
complex issues.
2- It enables individual members of the public to express
their views to government officials and agencies.

We see both of these phenomena taking place in the National
Dialogue on Libraries as a Community Resource for Environmental
Information.  The extent to which the Dialogue has functioned
smoothly is a tribute to your intelligence, dedication and
generosity.  I thank you all for your splendid contributions.

Bob Carlitz

Executive Director
Information Renaissance