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