I would love to say that I hate, despise, loathe and detest all list serves and forms of mass emailing but it would be a total lie. The problem with the statement would be that I use list serves for work all the time and find them to be completely useful, probably for the fact that they are easy. Even in my personal life. Example, if I have something, a document, or a link, or a power point that I know I need to get to almost everyone I know, I simply send it to everyone in my address book with an apology if it went to someone that it wasn’t supposed to go to. It is much simpler than going through the 638 names in the address book and clicking each person that I want it to go to.

Here is the key point of this little rant that I am typing at the moment. When I send something to the 638 people that I know, I bcc it to everyone, that way no one gets to see to huge list of names and addresses.
In the cast of most list serves, and general list serve etiquette, the policy is that when the message is sent the thousands of names are put into the “bcc” field and the sender puts their address in the “field”. This is done for privacy reasons, so that nosy people (myself included) don’t see the thousand other addresses, and take other people’s contact information.

This policy usually works, until you run into people like my brother, who doesn’t think… ever (I don’t think). So, when he finds some great power point that he thinks is terrific he decides to forward to everyone in his gmail account. He doesn’t bcc the names and (since I had recently changed my email address) all of a sudden I was getting emails from old friends and ex boyfriends that I had hoped to never hear from again.

I remember when I was nine or ten and my mother used to complain that I was watching television all the time. She would say that I was “glued to the TV” and always get so exasperated when I would insist that I had to be home in time to watch a certain show, otherwise I would never know what happened. It really doesn’t seem that long ago.

For the past few years I have spent the first few months of every year at one place: The state capitol building in Santa Fe, New Mexico. One time it was as a secretary for a senator, once it was a division director for the Health Department, and once it was as the Communications Director for the Lieutenant Governor’s Children’s Cabinet.

I quickly learned many things during these 30 and 60 day sessions, one of them being that any television shows that I had previously been addicted to had to go, there was no time to keep up with them during these legislative sessions. The only thing that I seemed to have a chance to watch on TV was college basketball, and that was due to the fact that the entire legislative body and staff of the capitol (roundhouse) had money of various games.

During spring break this year I returned home to New Mexico and one of the places that I went to was Santa Fe to visit the legislative session and work on lobbying a few bills. One of the things that struck me as quite interesting was the upgrades in technology that the roundhouse had undergone. There was a wireless network running throughout the building, and every staff member had new computers. Therefore, when visiting the analysts and secretaries I found them watching episodes of Grey’s Anatomy from the night before, and live feeds of the basketball games on their computers. Senators and Representatives were not facing such difficulties keeping a quorum as they were staying put on the floor watching the games on their laptop instead of leaving the chambers to go watch the games in the lounges.

It was a great change to the atmosphere that I was used to working in. I wondered it if was a positive one? It certainly kept people happy, and no doubt assisted in keeping a quorum on the floor (something that New Mexico had much trouble with), but also seemed to be quite distracting for many people.

In “The Shape of Electronic Democracy” Lawrence Grossman starts his article by telling us about the thousands of home school parents that shut down the Capitol switchboard in 1994 when they bombarded members of Congress with mass amounts of communication about an upcoming piece of legislation. Their effort was mainly organized by the use of networks on the internet where they had shared information and were able to create a movement and kill a bill that was “sure to pass”. If the internet had not been available to these parents, who were vastly spread across the country, it may not have been possible for them to have achieved their desired out come with the intended piece of legislation (that being to see it die on the floor).
Unlike the citizens of America, interest groups throughout the country, and business/corporate community that populates our nation, congress has yet to catch up with the rest of the world when in comes to aspects of technology. Senator Joe Lieberman (Conn) said about Capitol Hill that “Congress never moves as fast as the rest of the world does.” While that may be true, research shows that they are also resistant to change. One lawmaker stated that “whatever the future holds, we can be sure of one thing: At first Congress will always be good at resisting it”.
The prime example of Congress’s hesitation towards changing their routine and traditions is that of voting. When looking at voting in the House of Representatives, votes today are taken electronically. It was Thomas Edison who invented the electronic voting machine in 1869. He believed that his invention would be widely accepted by all, as it would save large amounts of time, but after he took it to the Massachusetts Legislature it was rejected on the grounds that it would infringe on the minority’s right to delay action on legislation. He then took his invention to Washington, D.C. where he was told that it was precisely what they “…didn’t want”. That the invention would “destroy the only hope that the minority would have of influencing legislation. And as the ruling majority knows that at some day they may become a minority they will be as much averse to change as their opponents.”
In that legislative session there was a discussion about electronic voting. Representative Thomas Ferry (R-Mich) was in strong support of the issue as during the past session (40th session) the roll was called 346 times, consuming 115 hours, which was somewhere around 23 days. The House tabled the bill by a roll call of 86 to 82.
Over the next hundred years the issue of electronic voting was brought up in the house a few other times but not acted upon. However, in 1973, in order to become more transparent, the House of Representatives did finally install an electronic voting system. One has yet to be implemented in the chambers of the Senate (which still operates on a voice roll call voting system) as they state that among other things, the roll call gives them time to do business with other legislators.
It also wasn’t until the 1970’s that television cameras began to be allowed into the chambers of congress. This was first in the house, and then about ten years later, in the mid 80’s in the senate. Some lawmakers had been pushing for this to happen since the mid 20’s, when there was a possibility of putting committee hearings on the radio. Now, almost all congressional proceedings are televised and available on CSPAN or CSPAN II.
The last piece of technology to be introduced to congress has been that of the computer. Like everything else, it has taken a while for them to catch up with the rest of the world. It was in 1977 where a resolution was passed that required all of Capitol Hill to go to a computerized scheduling system. While this went into effect in 1977, it did not begin to work efficiently until about five years later.
The mover and shaker for all computer and internet advances in Congress was Speaker Newt Gingrich (R- Ga), credited as being one of the leaders in bringing Information Age Technology to Capitol Hill. After elected speaker in 1995 he worked to put into effect a computer system called THOMAS (after Thomas Jefferson) in the Library of Congress. It is an online resource that made it so that copies of bills, summaries, committee reports, the Congressional Record, etc., things that were once available to those only in Washington DC were now available to anyone in the world.
Following the advances in technology every member on Capitol Hill has their own webpage. A resource where constituents can follow what their representative is doing and also a means of contacting them.
As we look into the future the possibilities for congress are inevitable. With the capabilities of video phones, web conferencing, conference calls, we could see ourselves in a nation where we have a congress that no longer needs to meet in the capitol. Congress already was able to have one hearing via conference call. Although they have specifically stated that this is not the direction that they are going in. They do not even allow laptops on the floor of the chambers, much to the complaint of many members.

My brother and I use instant messaging as our primary form of communication. There are a couple reasons for this, but the main ones are that he is in New Mexico and I am in DC, and so there is a two hour time difference, and when you throw in the fact that we both work, and then add the fact that he is a strange person that hates the phone, instant messaging is just the best way for us to communicate.
We talk, once a week maybe, just enough to catch up, say "hi", make fun of each other. The thing that I have been noticing lately is that, given that we are both under a lot of stress, him with work, and me with work and stress and school, our great way of communication is not working so well anymore.
When we both lived in New Mexico it was terrific because we both sat in front of computers all day. But now, by the time I collapse into my apartment after class, he is getting ready to end his day. Therefore, I am getting ready to relax, and he is hitting a pinnacle of stress. So, in the midst of sending messages back and forth to each other we end up misinterpreting them often times (ex: I often think that he is mad at me, he usually thinks that I am insulting him), and by the end of the conversation we end up both mad at each other. Then we go a few days before one of sends a nice email breaking the silence.
I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't be better if we actually talked on the phone as a form of communication, where, in contrast to just seeing words on the computer screen, I could hear his voice tone. Normally I can tell what kind of mood he is in by his writing style, but lately that has not been working. So I pose the question of whether or not Instant Messaging is really a good form of communication?

Last Monday we had class in a virtual classroom. Although it was an interesting idea, and certainly a fun and interesting way to have class, I did not think it was something that I would evr come to enjoy, or a way that I would be good at learning. Our class is already at the end of long day for me, which makes it hard enough to pay attention, but when class is taking place in, essentially, an unorganized, free-for-all chatroom, it was overwhelming. It was basically the equivalent of putting all of us in a room, and setting out a controversial topic, and then letting all of us try to talk over each other. I did exactly what I would have done in the classroom, which was to throw in a few comments, and then retreat as it got too overwhelming.
I do think that the idea of holding classes online is a good one, it is just something that would have to be a little bit more fine tuned before it is something that a productive discussion could happen.

For my Crossfire Paper I have chosen to write about the field of behavioral health care and how it has been influenced by technology. At this point in time there is a large amount of debate, not only in the mental health community, but in the federal government as well about a service known as telehealth, e-therapy, or e-psychiatry. It would be an advancement in psychiatry and psychology where an individual would be able to see a therapist through the internet using webcams and microphones on a computer. As behavioral health is a field that I have worked in for some time, some of the main sources that I used were experts that I have had the privilege of working with. Doctors and executive directors that were the individuals that pushed for the beginning pilot projects of telehealth.

On PDA’s, Palm Pilot’s, Blackberrys, Treos and the like: I think that they are ridiculous! A gadget that helps the entire human population develop even more tendencies of dependency on technology. I to fall guilty into the dependent part of the technology crowd of society having owned a Blackberry, Pocket PC and now one of the later models of the Treo.
Over the years the development of technological gadgets has advanced in a manner to design devices that are not only convenient in application and purpose but advantageous in size as well. The smaller that these contraptions became, the more appealing that they seemed to the business and corporate community as executives could now fit their entire planner and, in a sense, life, in an object that is no bigger than 2.5 inches.
While these instruments of organization have assisted in organizational capabilities and increased productivity, it has also crippled people making them too dependent on these portable planners. I find it truly haphazard, the fact that we put our entire lives, calendar, contacts, notes, files, you name it, its in there, into a tiny machine, and then go absolutely ballistic the moment we leave it at the office or perhaps someone picks it up by mistake, or heaven forbid, our coworker throws it at us and it hits a wall by mistake smashing into three or more pieces (yes this has happened to me).
Thus, this begs the question, how much technological assistance is good for improving and assisting in our everyday life, and how much crosses that line, where we can’t, or do not know how to function once the technology is taken away from us? Do we have to worry that they are called “Smart Phones” because in some ways these devices are competing with our intelligence once we start to depend on them?