Electronic Town Meeting Has Community Buzzing : Computers: Santa Monica’s free public network is popular, but many apparently listen in without taking part.

A year after going on line with an innovative public computer network, Santa Monica’s PEN system is functioning as a 24-hour electronic town meeting, as well as a sort of free party line that allows people to eavesdrop on conversations.

While one group may be electronically debating the merits of a proposal to build a public shower and locker facility for the homeless, another group is chatting about the shortage of available and compatible company of the opposite sex.

The Public Electronic Network also has created a new group of community activists who, for the most part, do not attend public meetings, but who voice their opinions and criticize city officials by computer.

Nearly 2,000 people have registered to use the system, but only a core group of about 50 seem to be actively responding to discussion items. That means that hundreds more are “lurking,” a PEN term used to describe reading without responding to the conversations that appear on their computer screens.

“All we can do is try to reach out to those people,” said Kevin McKeown, who was one of the first to sign onto the system and who organized a group of PEN users who now meet regularly. “It’s real hard. Some people think that anything they write on-line will be used against them by the government. Of course, that’s not true.”

Despite the reluctance of some residents to participate in discussions, city officials say the public’s acceptance of PEN--which is free to residents of Santa Monica and selected non-residents who have dealings with the city--has been beyond expectations.

Ken Phillips, who as director of the city’s Information Systems Department oversees PEN, said he had expected about 500 people to sign up in the first year. That many enrolled in the first month. As of last week’s first anniversary, there were 1,963 registered users.

“The response is incredible,” Phillips said. “But we have the capacity for even more.”

But not everyone is happy with PEN. City Councilman William H. Jennings, who admitted that he only recently learned how to use the system, questions its appropriateness.

“It seems extremely chatty to me,” Jennings said. “To have to weed through thousands of responses seems incredible.”

Jennings also said that city officials who get involved in the electronic discussions could give a false impression that city approval has been given to proposals that are being discussed.

To use the system, residents must register with the city. They are assigned an identification number and then they choose a secret password that gives them access to the system. There is no fee to join, and since the access telephone number is a local call, the service is free.

The network may be accessed from any computer terminal equipped with a telephone modem.

The system costs the city about $75,000 annually.

The network offers four primary services: a bulletin board of city services and public meetings and agendas; electronic mail for users and city officials; access to the city’s computerized library catalogue, and “conferencing,” in which users can discuss such issues as religion, abortion, rent control and the homeless.