[Peace-discuss] proposal for new e-mail list dealing with on-line activism

[patton paul]

AWARE currently has two e-mail lists, Peace-action, and Peace-political,
that are no longer in use.  I would like to propose that we designate one
of these lists, maybe Peace-action, as the list for posts related to
on-line activism.  This would be the place to send posts which request
that readers call/e-mail/fax their congressperson about some peace related
issue, sign an on-line petition, make a donation, or attend a
demonstration sponsored by a group outside Urbana-Champaign.  I envision
that most of the posts on this list would be forwards from nationwide
organizations like Moveon.org, TrueMajority, Voices4Change, PeaceAction,
etc.  The reason I'm proposing that we use an additional list is that, in
the past, I've often used the Peace list for online activism related
messages.  However, as Ricky recently reminded me, the Peace list is
intended for minutes and announcements of upcoming events only.  Given the
large volume of mail on Peace recently, I concur with Ricky's concerns.
Using another list wouldn't reduce the overall volume of e-mail, because
hopefully almost everyone will subscribe to Peace-action, in order keep
informed about the latest on-line activism actions.  Separating on-line
activism messages onto an additional list would make it easier to sort out
your e-mail though, and readily identify on-line activism posts for prompt
attention.  Using a new list would also be better than sending on-line
activism posts to Peace-discuss.  Peace-discuss gets lots of very
interesting posts of a purely informational nature.  Busy people might not
have time to sort through all these posts to find the ones that advocate
taking specific actions.  Also, Peace-discuss's subscriber base is a lot
smaller than Peace's.  Would most people be willing to subscribe to the
Peace-action list, or would you prefer to have online activism messages
diseminated through Peace or Peace-discuss?  I think we should talk about
this at the next meeting, and I would like to request it be put on the
agenda.  Keep in mind that since the Peace-action list already exists,
very little work is needed to start using it.  It just needs to be
publicized by an announcement on Peace, and the website needs to be
modified to explain the new purpose of Peace-action.  I am willing to
volunteer to do these things as well as monitor the new list to make sure
that posts there are appropriate to its purpose.
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Dr. Paul Patton
Research Scientist
Beckman Institute  Rm 3027  405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795   fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-328-4064
homepage: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ppatton/index.html

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
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