Gore’s Long Highway to Success

Vice President Al Gore wants to help build a high-speed information highway by the year 2000. But so far he’s having trouble accessing electronic mail at the White House.

Gore’s personal frustrations as the nation’s highest-ranking computer expert are indicative of what he faces in his efforts to extend the benefits of modern technology to the country as a whole.

Gore himself has a pretty good setup, including both a Macintosh PowerBook Duo 270-c and an AST IBM-compatible personal computer. He uses the machines for electronic mail, writing speeches and “personal projects.”

But the White House computer system, in Gore’s words, “is a museum piece.”

“The White House that we inherited was way, way, way behind the curve, and we have spent the last year trying to get it up to speed,” Gore said in an interview Tuesday, shortly after he delivered his “superhighway summit” address at UCLA.

Gore has a lot of work to do. His struggle at the White House, like his challenge to build the data superhighway, will require changes in technology, regulations and attitudes.

Take vice presidential e-mail. “There are some communications within the White House that can only take place electronically if you don’t do certain things, and it’s frustrating to me because I think we ought to be fully linked to the Internet,” he said.

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The Freedom of Information Act, which Gore supports, has provisions for storage and retrieval of government communications and correspondence. The White House has long had procedures for paper mail, but issues regarding e-mail have not been fully resolved.

And, as with the data highway, there are privacy issues. “What people may think is a private message to us has to be kept in public files.”

Millions of Americans are already using the Internet and commercial on-line services to exchange e-mail. But sending e-mail to the White House can be a frustrating experience.

Clinton and Gore do have e-mail addresses (Gore’s Internet address is vice.president @whitehouse.gov) but messages are printed out and answered via U.S. mail, assuming the person remembered to include a postal address. Even then, a lot of people, including myself, have discovered that the White House often fails to respond to its e-mail. Gore says that will change.

Gore has often joked about the White House’s antiquated telephone system, which, when he and Clinton took office, had rotary-dial phones and an old-fashioned switchboard.

If the technologically savvy White House staff is having trouble modernizing its own facilities, one can’t help but wonder how long it will take before we reach the Administration’s goal, to “connect all of our classrooms, all of our libraries and all of our hospitals and clinics by the year 2000.”

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And even if we do reach that goal, will the technology help solve the many social problems facing our society? If millions of Americans can’t read, how can we expect them to log on to the Internet and on-line services?

“Nations like Cuba just put us to shame where adult literacy is concerned,” Gore said. “And it’s time we realized the need for a national program to deal with this problem.”

Laudably, but perhaps over-optimistically, Gore contends that “information technologies can themselves make a contribution to combatting illiteracy.” I agree, but my local school district doesn’t have enough money for pencils and paper, let alone Macs and PCs.

A digital superhighway won’t be of much use to schools that don’t have enough computers. Our current interstate highway system offers free access, but you can’t get on them if you don’t have access to a car or bus ticket.

Vice President Gore has a lot of work to do. I wish him well.

Computer File welcomes your comments. Write to Lawrence J. Magid, 898 Chestnut St., Suite 3, Redwood City, CA 94063, or message magid@latimes.com on the Internet or KPVN58A on Prodigy.