GETTING INFORMATION TO AND FROM THE WHITE HOUSE 1993

             GETTING INFORMATION TO AND FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

                       FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

                         Updated March 12, 1993

A.  HOW TO SIGN UP FOR ELECTRONIC RELEASES FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: 

The White House Communications office is distributing press releases over an

experimental system developed during the campaign.

You can sign up to receive press releases on this experimental system by using

the automated computer server.  You will be carried forward onto the system

that replaces it.  However, it would be appreciated if you used this

service sparingly at this time.  The present system was not designed to handle

high levels of message traffic.  In due course, a more powerful system will

be available.

You can also find copies of the press releases in certain on-line bulletin

board groups devoted to discussions of either national politics in general or

President Clinton in particular.  

1.  On USENET/NETNEWS, electronic publications are found on a variety of

    groups:

        Direct Distribution

                alt.politics.clinton

                alt.politics.org.misc

                alt.politics.reform

                alt.politics.usa.misc

                alt.news-media

                alt.activism

                talk.politics.misc

        Indirect Distribution

                misc.activism.progressive

                cmu.soc.politics

                assocs.clinton-gore-92 

2.  On CompuServe: GO WHITEHOUSE

3.  On America Online: keyword WHITEHOUSE or THE WHITEHOUSE or CLINTON

4.  On The WELL: type whitehouse

5.  On MCI: type VIEW WHITE HOUSE

If you don't have access to the these accounts or if you would prefer to

receive the releases via e-mail, then the next section details how to sign up

for this service.  The server is not set up to answer e-mail letters,

comments or requests for specific information. To reach this server, send

e-mail:



                to: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org

                subject: Help

The server works by reading the subject line of the incoming message and

taking whatever action that line calls for. If you want to sign up to

automatically receive press releases, then your subject line would begin with

the word RECEIVE.  You can then specify what kind of information you are

interested in receiving. The categories of information are:

ECONOMIC POLICY

                        Get releases related to the economy such as budget

                        news, technology policy review, etc.

FOREIGN POLICY

                        Get releases related to foreign policy such as

                        statements on Bosnian airdrop, Haitian refugee status,

                        etc.

SOCIAL POLICY

                        Get releases related to social issues like National

                        Service (Student Loan) program, abortion, welfare

                        reform, etc.

SPEECHES                    

                        All speeches made by the President and important

                        speeches made by other Administration officials.

NEWS

                        Transcripts of press conferences released by the White

                        House Communications office, as well as the

                        President's remarks in photo ops and other Q&A

                        sessions.

ALL                     All of the above

So, if you wanted to sign up to get releases related to the economy your

e-mail message would look like this:

        To: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org

        Subject: RECEIVE ECONOMY

When you send a signup message to the clinton-info server, it sends you back a

status message letting you know what distribution streams you are signed up

for. If you ever want to check on what groups you are signed up for send the

following message:

To: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org

Subject: STATUS



You can stop receiving e-mail releases by sending a REMOVE message to the

clinton-info server. The word REMOVE would be followed by whatever

distribution stream you wanted to drop. If you wanted to stop receiving

message about the ECONOMY then your mail would look like this:

To: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org

Subject: REMOVE ECONOMY

You could substitute SOCIAL, FOREIGN, SPEECHES, NEWS or ALL for ECONOMY in the

above message and you would be dropped from that distribution list. If you

send the subject line REMOVE ALL, then you will be taken off the e-mail

distribution system all together and will not receive further releases of any

kind.

You can also ask for help from the automated server.  Send an e-mail query as

follows:

        To: Clinton-Info@Campaign92.Org

        Subject: HELP

The server will respond by sending you a detailed form that will guide you

through the process of signing up for the various distribution streams.

B.  ARE THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS RELEASES BEING ARCHIVED.

Yes.  Various sites are archiving the press releases.  What follows is an

incomplete list of some of the sites containing the documents that have

been released to date.  This FAQ will be updated to reflect new sites as

they become known.

         SITE                           DIRECTORY

1. SUNSITE.UNC.EDU              /HOME3/WAIS/WHITE-HOUSE-PAPERS

2. FTP.CCO.CALTECH.EDU          /PUB/BJMCCALL

3. FTP MARISTB.MARIST.EDU

4. CPSR.ORG                     /CPSR/CLINTON

5. FedWorld BBS                 703-321-8020  8-N-1

Notes:  The following are notes on how to log in and get

        information from the above sites.

1.      Office FOR Information Technology at University of

        North Carolina Maintains the full collection of White

        House electronic release available for search with WAIS.

        (:source

        :version 3

        :database-name "/home3/wais/White-House-Papers" :ip-

                address "152.2.22.81"

        :ip-name "sunsite.unc.edu"

        :tcp-port 210

        :cost 0.00

        :cost-unit :free

        :maintainer "pjones@sunsite.unc.edu"



        :description "Server created with WAIS release 8 b5 on  

                Feb 27 15:16:16 1993 by pjones@sunsite.unc.edu

        These are the White House Press Briefings and other

        postings dealing with William Jefferson Clinton and

        Albert Gore as well as members of the President's

        Cabinet and the first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, 

        Chelsea, Socks and others in Washington DC. Dee Dee 

        Meyers and George Stephanopoulos.  Other good words:

        United States of America, Bill Al Tipper Democrats USA 

        US These files are also available via anonymous ftp 

        from sunsite.unc.edu The files of type filename used in 

        the index were: 

        /home3/ftp/pub/academic/political-science/whitehouse-

         papers/1993 ")

        Folks without WAIS clients or gophers that act as WAIS

        clients may telnet to sunsite.unc.edu and login as swais 

        to access this information via WAIS. 

2.      No special instructions.

3.      The CLINTON@MARIST log files which contain all the official

        administration releases distributed through the MIT servers

        are available via anonymous FTP. These logs contain in

        addition to the official releases, the posts that comprise the

        ongoing discussion conducted by the list subscribers. 

        To obtain the logs:

        FTP MARISTB.MARIST.EDU - the logs are in the CLINTON directory

        and are named CLINTON LOG9208 thru CLINTON LOGyymm where yymm

        stands for the current year and month. Problems should be

        directed to my attention: URLS@MARISTC.BITNET or

        URLS@VM.MARIST.EDU. 

        Posted by Lee Sakkas - owner, CLINTON@MARIST

4.      Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is

        providing all Clinton documents on technology and privacy

        at the CPSR Internet Library, available via

        FTP/WAIS/Gopher at cpsr.org /cpsr/clinton (and in other

        folders as relevant). For email access, send a message

        with the word "help" at the 1st line of text to

        listserv@cpsr.org.

5.      The White House Forum (GO WHITEHOUSE) on CompuServe is devoted to

        discussion of the Clinton administration's policies and activities.

        The forum's library consists of news releases and twice daily media

        briefings from the White House Office of Media Affairs.  CompuServe

        members can exchange information and opinions with each other in the

        17 sections in the forum's message area.  The message board spans a

        broad range of topics, including international and United Nations

        activities, defense, health care, the economy and the deficit, housing

        and urban development, the environment, and education and national

        service.



6.      On America Online the posts are sent to the White House Forum, located

        in the News & Finance department of the service and accessible via

        keywords "white house" and "clinton."  The White House Forum on America 

Online contains the press releases from the White House, divided into the 

categories "Press Briefings," "Meetings & Speeches," "Foreign Policy," "The 

Economy," "Technology," "Health Care," and "Appointments." The area features a 

message board so you can discuss the releases with other AOL members, and a 

searchable database for easy retrieval of releases in the topic that interests 

you.

7.      MCI Mail users can access daily information on the administration's      

programs provided by the White House through MCI Mail bulletin boards.  The 

available boards are: WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC, WHITE HOUSE FOREIGN,    WHITE HOUSE 

SOCIAL, WHITE HOUSE SPEECHES and WHITE HOUSE NEWS.  A       listing of these 

boards can also be obtained by simply typing 

        VIEW WHITE HOUSE at the COMMAND prompt.

C.  SENDING E-MAIL TO THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House e-mail system is under construction.  This is a new project

and suffers from all of the problems common to a startup operation.  The

Communications office is currently working on defining what this system will

do, as well as trying to come up with equipment and staffing to make sure that

it works.  E-mail messages are currently being printed out and responses

are being sent out via US Mail.

Nobody wants this new venture to work more than the staff that has devoted so

many hours to getting it up and running.  But much time and effort will be

required before the system is truly interactive.  In the mean time, they will

need a little patience from the electronic community.  If you send a message

to the White House, please include a US Post office address for replies.

        You can send e-mail to the following accounts:

Compuserve:             75300,3115

                        GO: WHITE HOUSE         finds White House forum

America OnLine:         clinton pz

                        KEYWORD: WHITEHOUSE     finds White House area

MCI                     TO: WHITE HOUSE

                        VIEW WHITE HOUSE        views bulletin boards

Internet:               clinton-hq@Campaign92.Org

                        75300.3115@compuserve.com

                        clintonpz@aol.com

Please send corrections, deletion and additions to this fqa to:

                Updates@Clinton92.Org