AOL is employing activist-for-hire Leslie Harris to rustle up the grassroots. AOL wants folks to send Congress pro-AOL mail and calls as the new Excite/At Home combo fights for AOL's market share. Harris has worked with Norman Lear's People for the American Way in the past, as did Melanne Verveer, the aide with Hillary Rodham Clinton's ear. But At Home's John Doerr is close to veep Al Gore.

    Winnie Wechsler has left Disney's Internet division. The senior v.p. goes to Lightspan, an educational software company. Wechsler was a key developer of the Disney Online Web site. Wechsler is just the latest in a string of Disney execs to quit since The Mouse acquired Infoseek in a merger that produced a management shakeup in the Disney upper echelons. Disney doesn't expect to fill Weschler's job any time soon.

    Novell's Eric Schmidt is helping to put together the New America Foundation here in D.C. Inside the hot new think tank, Schmidt will be rubbing elbows with luminaries such as ex-White House economist Laura D'Andrea Tyson. Schmidt supports the chat salon because "I am very tired of the two sides arguing."

    Deep in the heart of Tech. Talking to C-SPAN's Brian Lamb, Gov. George W. Bush R-TX said that he communicates with Dear Old Dad, ex-prez George Bush R-TX, CT, ME, MA... by e-mail. "I e-mail back and forth to ex-President Bush... He's pretty literate." And Barbara Bush is online, too. "Mom's on there as well. Believe it or not, she's high-tech. She may not look high-tech, but she's high-tech." Will "W." be reachable by e-mail at president@whitehouse.gov - his dad's old address - come 2001?

    Eighty-four days after starting off, the Iridium IceTrek team, headed by Sir Edmund Hillary offspring Peter Hillary, reached the South Pole, where they stuck a piece of Australian driftwood in the ground. Turns out the nearest "pole" was 25 miles away, so they had to provide their own. The team frequently called in from the road on their Iridium mobile phones. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II sent a telegram of congrats. Said team member Eric Philips, "We all felt quite humbled by that level of interest in our journey, and marveled that such people could find us so far away in Antarctica through the Iridium phone." And speaking of penguinland, here's the unnecessary Webcam of the week: all Canadian penguins, all the time.

    The Business Software Alliance is rebuilding out of adobe, choosing Colleen Pouliot, senior veep of Adobe Systems, as chairman of the board. "Colleen Pouliot's experience and knowledge of high-tech issues will be invaluable as BSA continues its efforts to fight software piracy and promote public policy that advances one of the fastest growing and highest job-creating sectors of the economy," says CEO Robert Holleyman. Pouliot says she plans to bolster BSA's position as the voice for the software industry on issues ranging from copyright protection to encryption to electronic commerce, adding that the BSA will continue to encourage Congress to adopt effective high-tech policies and fight software piracy.

    Leon Panetta may become executive director for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Panetta may replace current director Cole Wilbur. A key part of the job? Running Monterey Bay Aquarium with board member Julie Packard.

    Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson is auctioning himself off at eBay. This apparent violation of the Thirteenth Amendment is actually just a chance to talk up the moneyman over breakfast. The current high bid? $200. Jurvetson is the man responsible for the sale of HotMail to Microsoft.

    Lycos CEO Bob Davis said last week, "Yahoo! reaches 47.6 percent of interner users. Lycos reaches 44.5 percent. We have grown over 200 percent this year alone. They have grown less than 15 percent. Look out Yahoo -- Lycos is going to pass you by." So why's Davis selling off so much stock in his own company?

    InfoBeat fired founder John Funk after the sale of the e-media service to Sony Music Entertainment. The New Regime, Exactis, asked Funk and CEO Vandy Van Wagener to resign. The pair said no and were fired. The change was "a long time coming," said coup leader Tom Detmer. As part of the restructuring, two other directors, Steve Schovee and Jeffrey Horne, were forced out. "It was a request of mine," Detmer says. "I work better with smaller boards."

    CDNow boy wonders Jason and Matthew Olim have published The CDNow Story: Rags to Riches on the Internet.

    ZDNN columnist Jesse Berst says there are 40,000 "cyber-stalkers" online at this very second, preying on your children!

    Elaine K. Carpenter has become chief of staff of the United States Telephone Association. Carpenter was director of communications at Aliant in Lincoln NE. Carpenter handled Government Relations at Aliant.

    Gov. Jesse Ventura Ref-MN wants to use the Internet to govern from the ground up. Ventura says he will use his 5,000-member e-mail list, JesseNet, to rally his supporters to his defense during the battles ahead. The shiny-scalped populist says his e-mail efforts were the key to his utterly unexpected victory over two deep-pocketed major party rivals last year. Ventura will use JesseNet to put pressure on the state legislature, and to solicit citizens' views. "Let's face it - that's the future," said the guv. "It's one of the things I stand for very strongly. If I need to put any word out - boom! We can put the word out to 5,000 people in minutes."

    It's good to see the Boys From Redmond being candid on the stand. Said Paul Maritz in a blunt moment, "I am a senior Microsoft executive. I don't deny that."

    Netscape founder Marc Andreessen is the new chief technology officer at AOL, now that the AOL has acquired Netscape. Andreessen thinks D.C.'s Beltway, home to AOL, can become the next Silicon Valley.

    Paul Sagan, who helped create Pathfinder, has joined Akamai Technologies, a Cambridge MA startup. His old Pathfinder pal Jim Kinsella has just been made CEO of MSNBC's Web presence.

    IDG's Network World has ranked tech power players. The top ten: 1. Bill Gates, 2. John Chambers of Cisco, 3. Craig Barrett of Intel, 4. Louis Gerstner of IBM, 5. Michael Armstrong of AT&T, 6. Rich McGinn of Lucent, 7. Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems, 8. Larry Ellison of Oracle, 9. Eric Benhamou of 3Com, 10. Eric Schmidt of Novell.

    AT&T boss Michael Armstrong spoke at a D.C. trade show, unveiling AT&T's "Inc." data service, an effort to compete with MCI WorldCom. Armstrong said AT&T will take a "back seat to no one."

    Ron Sege, leaving 3Com for Lycos, will help with the No. 2 portal's massive growth of late. The new executive vice president will help juggle all Lycos's recent acquisitions into one happy company.

    Brian O'Shaughnessy, director of public policy for the Internet Alliance, is leaving to take on the daunting task of senior manager of corporate communications at Network Solutions. Internet Alliance deputy policy counsel Tim Lordan takes O'Shaughnessy's job there while a replacement is sought.

    Vulcan Ventures, headed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has concluded a $2.4 billion service swap, adding about 400,000 customers in the South in exchange for about 140,000 in the Midwest and West.

    Karen Brown is the new deputy director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Brown comes from IBM Microelectronics in Hopewell Junction NY, and holds a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Rochester.

    Al Sisto, CEO of RSA Data Security since December 1997, is leaving the company after RSA decided to restructure with the help of Security Dynamics.

    Larry Olson has resigned his position as Pennsylvania's inaugural chief information officer to pursue a job in the private sector. The Keystone State has yet to choose its second CIO.

    Wayne Hanson of Government Technology will judge IT projects for the Global Bangemann Challenge, a worldwide competition on government IT in large cities. Stockholm Mayor Mats Hulth says "With the Global Challenge we in Europe will be able to compare our work with the best that North America and Asia have to offer in the field of IT. We should take advantage of this opportunity."

    The GSA's Public Buildings Service has named William Piatt as chief information officer. Piatt starts Feb. 15.

    Symantec's Gordon Eubanks has stepped down as CEO after a long and well-respected tenure.

    Marty Keane has left N2K to become product development v.p. at Bluefly.

    Linda Starr is the new head of Who Vision, departing Compaq.

    Buzz? Rumors? Self-promotion? Fire it off to Peter J.M. Orvetti.