E-Mail in our Government
By Russell E. Theisen IEEE-Life Senior Member
Russ Theisen was a member of the IEEE-CS Board of Governors and the (ACM) Association of Computing Machinery and (AFIPS) American Federation of Information Societies. He served from 1973 through 1986 and was able to get the IEEE-CS to start using computers to help conduct the computer business.
President Jimmy Carter was elected President in 1976,
When Jimmy Carter went to the White House and observed the antiquated way Executive Business was conducted he requested the help from the AFIPS Group to come to Washington and help him come up with a plan to get the US Government out of the dark ages.
He was accustom to using computers in running his Peanut Business in Planes Georgia, and he thought that the Federal Government could also benefit from the technology.
Russ Theisen was among the Group that went to hear a briefing from the Executive Branch on how President Carter needed help in the effort.
The Group listened to the plea for help and they came up with a suggestion to introduce computer technology to the Executive Branch of the US Government. To replace the manual process of using Manual Typewriters and manual mimeograph machines to make copies of every communication to be distributed to the distribution list.
The problem that they faced was, that there was not any money available to fund the effort.
The Group proposed obtaining an older model Computer system from a technology company and use donated software to get it running. They found a computer vendor, Boroughs, who would donate an older model with the hope that the Government would select them when money was available.
We installed IBM Profs E-Mail software and connected them to the ARPANET, which was just coming available. This was the early work that later led to the Internet.
When the system was being installed, both the Legislative Branches of Senate and the House became interested and they wanted computers and E-Mail too.
During the technical presentations to both houses of Congress, Russ Asked, is there one thing that you would like that would make your job easier? The answer was yes, how can we keep from having to stop whatever we were doing and having to go down to the basement to take a shuttle to the Capital Building to take a roll call vote, every time the ‘Damn Bell” rings to call for a vote. And how can we find a way to attend our Committee Meeting all over the Capital without leaving our Offices.
We suggested using Closed TV viewing with an electronic voting
key, that would allow each member of Congress to communicate with both the committees and vote from their offices.
The biggest concern was how could the Congress be sure who was voting. The answer was, we give the voting key to the elected official and they would be held responsible for the official vote.
This system is in use today.