Editors:
Stuart Shulman can be reached by telephone at 412-624-3776
and by e-mail at shulman@pitt.edu.
Mass E-mail Campaigns May Do More Harm
Than Good
Report: Internet is shifting how public
participates in regulatory process
PITTSBURGH -Groups that send out tens
or hundreds of thousands of similar e-mails seeking to
influence government regulations may be "inadvertently
petitioning themselves into obscurity," according
to a new report by a University of Pittsburgh professor.
"The assumption has been that the more people participate
in the policy-making process, the more they'll be listened
to," said Stuart W. Shulman, assistant professor of information
sciences and public administration at Pitt and senior
research associate in Pitt's University Center for Social
and Urban Research . " The fact may be that the more
they participate in mass e-mail campaigns-without creating
substantive, detailed, specific new information relevant
to a decision-the lower the agency estimates
the role of the public to be over time."
Federal agencies promulgate more than 4,000 new regulations
each year; the term "electronic rulemaking" refers to
the use of information technology and the Internet in
this process. The public has a right to participate under
the "notice and comment" provisions in the federal Administrative
Procedure Act of 1946.
As a part of his work leading the eRulemaking Research
Group-Jamie Callan, associate professor of computer science
at Carnegie Mellon University; Eduard Hovy, research
associate professor of computer science at the University
of Southern California; and Stephen Zavestoski, assistant
professor of sociology and environmental studies at the
University of San Francisco-Shulman has published a report,
titled "The Internet Still Might (but Probably Won't)
Change Everything: Stakeholder Views on the Future of
Electronic Rulemaking ," about the impact of modern information
technology and the Internet on the federal rulemaking
process. The report is available in hard copy beginning
today. |
