It was a meeting characterized by a theme of give and take, with representatives from Internet groups giving their unflattering opinions on the state of e-mail on the Hill, and Congressional staffers taking the heat. "Congressional Constituent Communications: How to Effectively Direct Electronic Messages to Capitol Hill" was the topic discussed at a monthly luncheon organized by The Communications Policy and Technology Network. Participating in the lively debate were congressional staff responsible for constituent relations programs and Internet strategists and Webmasters, representing policy, public affairs and political groups, who are encouraging members and the public to contact Congress on the Internet. The attendees spent most of the two hour meeting venting their frustrations with not being able to contact or get a response from members of Congress, and attempting to figure out ways their correspondence did not wind up "in the big delete in the sky." "We're just beginning to deal with e-mail. Many of us just got our Web sites out. Once people found out about e-mail, we averaged about 1,000 a day," said one congressional staff representative.

     The ISP Business Forum named Cronan O'Connell the first executive director of the National Internet Service Provider Association, an organization that represents "progressive" ISPs. In his post, O'Connell is responsible for the long-term strategy and day-to-day activities of the Forum, which was launched in late 1997. "My objective is to make it the leading ISP association in the industry," she said. O'Connell stressed that the association will support other organizations that are lobbying ISP-related issues, however business will be its primary focus. She said the group will be different from other Washington-based organizations because it is going to emphasize marketing issues. It will focus on the business areas that ISPs need to address to succeed in the market, and it will cover policy issues, according to ISP spokesman Jim Crawford. When asked why the organization waited nearly two years to appoint a head, Crawford said, "I think that it was run sort of informally on a consensus basis. They would get together and meet, and the reason they decided to branch out was because they didn't think all their needs were being met and to promote their agenda."

     California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-CA, is celebrating a small victory in her fight against intellectual property crime. The Department of Justice, FBI and Customs Service unveiled a federal law enforcement initiative aimed at fighting the growing threat of piracy and intellectual property crime. The program originally was designed to target high-tech areas in California, Boston, New York, New Jersey and San Jose. "Silicon Valley is home to America's largest and fastest growing companies. After spending millions of dollars on development and research, a company can be wiped out if their technology is stolen and reproduced by a unscrupulous competitor. Only federal law enforcement agencies have the resources to combat such crimes on an international or multi-state basis," Lofrgren said in a statement.

     The Information Technology Association of America's software division will be losing the senior vice president of its software division, when John Englund leaves his post Aug. 1 to assume the role of policy director at ExciteAtHome's Washington, DC, office. ITAA is looking for a successor to Englund.

     A high-tech gossip columnist is learning that while talk may be cheap, some actions come with a hefty price. The San Jose Mercury News' Chris Nolan, who writes the "Talk is Cheap" column for the newspaper's business section, was suspended indefinitely from her job after The Wall Street Journal reported that she earned thousands of dollars from an investment opportunity not offered to the general public. According to the Merc, Nolan expresses her regrets concerning the affair, but insists that her actions were not wrong, because the executive was a long-time friend. When Executive Editor David Yarnold announced the suspension he said he was angered because Nolan's actions raised the possibility of a conflict of interest. "All of us care deeply about our integrity, and we all have a responsibility to avoid either a real conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest," he said. "We hold others to high standards, and we should expect no less of ourselves."

     The Sun-Netscape Alliance, as it is being called temporarily, is busy making a number of changes and additions starting with the appointment of Bud Tribble as its new chief technology officer Wednesday. Prior to this post, Tribble was vice president of architecture and technology for the Consumer Embedded Division at Sun, co-founder of NeXT Computer, and worked with the software engineering group at Apple Computer during the development of the Macintosh. Also on the Alliance's plate is the announcement of the creation of the iPlanet product line — software that provides remote access to Internet connections from any location. The Alliance is also planning to launch a new marketing campaign to promote iPlanet.

     It took three months for Compaq Computer to appoint a new president and CEO after Compaq Chairman Ben Rosen, along with the board, ousted Eckhard Pfeiffer. In the end they opted for insider Michael Capellas over finalists Peter Hellman, former chief operating officer at TRW, a high-technology products and services provider, and John Zeglis, AT&T president. Capellas has been the COO for Compaq since June.

     The four children of Silicon Valley pioneer David Packard, who have been running their late father's David & Lucile Packard Foundation — one of the three largest foundations in the United States — have decided to split their efforts and money, giving $1.5 billion in stock and cash to the Packard Humanities Institute. The institute is expected to use the award for work in archaeology, film preservation, education and computerized archiving of Greek and Latin texts.

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