May 19, 1999

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Can the Internet be used to make government more responsive to the ideas of ordinary citizens? Dr. Robert D. Carlitz of Information Renaissance thinks so and has been demonstrating how it can be done.

Carlitz is a physicist who heads Information Renaissance, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit corporation engaged in a number of programs to extend the benefits of the Internet to the community at large. One of his organization’s programs is called Network Democracy, which is an effort to facilitate direct public participation in governmental decision-making by using state-of-the-art information technology.

"It has become an unfortunate but true fact of life in our modern democracy that the only people who significantly affect legislation and government decision-making at the national level are lobbyists, lawyers and trade association representatives headquartered in Washington, D.C., who are being paid to advocate a certain position," said Carlitz. "Ordinary citizens who live beyond the Beltway rarely have an opportunity to participate in the development of national legislation or public policy, no matter how interested or well informed they might be, " he said. According to Carlitz, this state of affairs is bad for public policy because it deprives decision makers of the full benefit of the experience, knowledge and intelligence of the American people, and it is bad for democracy because it essentially disenfranchises a large segment of the American public.

To remedy this, Information Renaissance has developed a prototype system to organize and manage on-line discussions between and among government officials and informed citizens concerning issues which are on the legislative or rulemaking agenda, and to preserve an original public record of the discussion for future reference. "Our objective has been to get beyond simple e-mail or typical on-line opinion surveys or discussion groups, and to develop a model which fosters meaningful, high-level, interactive dialogue on the public record between informed members of the public and governmental leaders," Carlitz said. Judging from comments Information Renaissance has received from people who have been following its work it has staked out a clear leadership position in the Network Democracy field. "No one is doing anything close to what we are doing today," said Carlitz.

Information Renaissance is now leading an on-line Network Democracy forum entitled "A National Dialogue on Social Security." This unique web conference began April 19 and concludes June 4. Members of Congress, nationally known experts, policy makers, and opinion makers are participating in five on-line roundtables which debate and discuss key issues with Americans. Senator Rick Santorum is scheduled to participate in a roundtable running from May 24 through June 4 which will examine some of the Social Security reform proposals which he and others have presented.

Current and upcoming roundtables include:

Investing in Stocks: May 17-31. Panelists Robert D. Reischauer, Brookings Institution and Carolyn L. Weaver, American Enterprise Institute debate whether income for the Social Security Trust Fund can or should be increased by investing in the stock market, the risks and costs involved.

Current Reform Proposals: May 24-June 4. Moderator Ron Gebhardtsbauer, Senior Actuary for the American Academy of Actuaries challenges representatives to examine the strengths and weaknesses of their reform legislation. Roundtable members include; Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Jim Bunning (R-KY), and Representatives Jim Kolbe (D-AZ), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Mark Sanford (R-SC), Clay Shaw (R-FL), and Charlie Stenholm (D-TX).

Women and Minorities: May 24-June 4. Panelists discuss how the options for Social Security reform affect the needs of women and minorities. Roundtable members include John Banks-Brooks, Tax Management, Inc.; Heidi Hartmann, Institute for Women's Policy Research; Kilolo Kijakazi, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Darcy Olsen, Cato Institute; Anna Rappaport, William M. Mercer, Inc., Past President of the Society of Actuaries; and Dr. William Spriggs, National Urban League.

Archives of the first Roundtables can be viewed on the project website:

Why Reform Now?: April 27-May 7. Members of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee presented their reasoning as to why reforms are required now and the benefits of early action. Roundtable members included Chairman Bill Archer (R-TX), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Kenny Hulshof (R-MO), and Karen Thurman (D-FL).

Options for Reform: May 3-May 14. Moderator Robert Rosenblatt, LA Times, challenged the group to examine the advantages and disadvantages of reform options proposals. Roundtable members included; Sam Beard, Economic Security 2000; Ron Gebhardtsbauer, American Academy of Actuaries; John C. Rother, AARP; and Gerald M. Shea, AFL-CIO.

Info Ren initiated the Network Democracy model in 1996. In conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission, Info Ren hosted a five week online discussion on Universal Service discounts for schools and libraries (the "E-Rate"). This seminar was one of the factors that led to the ultimate adoption of the E-Rate program, which now provides more than a billion dollars a year in discounts for school and library telecommunications services. In 1997, Info Ren conducted a second six week seminar on Universal Service for teachers and administrators in Pennsylvania. The project was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission through the Office of Administration of the Governor of Pennsylvania.

The National Dialogue on Social Security is being funded by a grant from The Prudential Foundation. Previous Network Democracy programs have been funded by The Heinz Endowments, BellSouth Foundation, Nynex, Pacific Bell and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

What’s next on the agenda? "We would really like to do an on-line national dialogue on teen violence," Carlitz said, "and we have begun a search for the funding. We think our model will scale up nicely to handle perhaps 500,000 or 1,000,000 participants and we have been looking for a topic which might give us the opportunity to prove it. The model we have developed can provide a mechanism for policy makers to talk directly with kids, their parents and teachers in a non-threatening on-line environment in order to attain a fuller understanding of the underlying issues," he said. "This is exactly what’s needed."

# # #