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Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) June 27, 2001 Web page helps untangle the city Author: Tom Ferrick Jr. Edition: CITY-D Section: PHILADELPHIA Page: B01
Index Terms: OPINION
Estimated printed pages: 3
Article Text: This begins with a dog named Emmy Lou. Emmy Lou is a mutt, owned by a guy named Ed Goppelt, who lives in South Philly and knows a lot about computer programming. Last year, Goppelt got upset when he found out that Councilman Jim Kenney had introduced what later came to be called the "anti-barking law." It was a proposed ordinance that said that if your dog barks and your neighbors complain, the barking must stop or eventually you will lose the dog. As a dog lover, Goppelt felt this was unfair. So he decided to organize opposition, get a letter-writing campaign going, etc. In the textbooks, this is called citizen action. His first trip was to City Hall to learn about the bill. There he discovered a great truth: Since knowledge is power, those who possess it tend to be unwilling to share it. Oh, he could get a copy of the bill; that was available at the Chief Clerk's Office. But finding out when it would come up for a vote, possible amendments, chances of passage, and so on was a different story. In short, Goppelt got lost in the maze that is the legislative process. The bill, which he had been led to believe would sit on the calendar for months, was passed, sent to the mayor, and signed into law long before Goppelt could organize fellow dog-loving citizens into action. AFTER THE CRUCIBLE Goppelt related this tale to me over breakfast at a restaurant in the Italian Market. He looks younger than his age, which is 41. He is a lean, angular man with wire-rim glasses who exudes an aura of intensity and anger. In what proportions, I cannot say with accuracy. What I can say is that Goppelt emerged from his ordeal with the anti-barking bill with a crucial insight: The problem in dealing with government is not that there isn't any information - there are often reams of it - but that it is hard to find and harder to sort out. "The problem is: There is too much information and not enough organization," he explained. Of course, the computer is a marvelous organizer, if you know how to use it. This is where Goppelt's skill as a programmer came in. Within a manner of months, Goppelt (with the help of his girlfriend and a few friends) assembled and organized a vast amount of information about City Council and then put it on the Web. The result, which is both simple and marvelous, can be found at www.hallwatch.org. Want to know about a bill? The text can be found on Hallwatch, as well as what committee is considering the legislation, plus when it will meet. A MAZE GUIDE Want to know about a Council member's campaign fund? Hallwatch has the reports - with a search function so you can look up individual contributors. Want to let your councilman know your stand on a bill? Hallwatch offers a fax portal - you e-mail your stand to the Hallwatch address, and it is forwarded via fax to the Council member. In effect, Hallwatch takes the maze, with all its twists and turns, and lays it out straight. Hallwatch is not well known. It has drawn about 2,100 visitors since its debut in March. And it is strictly a part-time effort, paid for by Goppelt, though he says it cost "only $500 for a computer and $50 a month for a [high-speed] DSL line." Now that's citizen action. Since the Web page went up in March, Goppelt has added to it in bits and pieces. Recently, he added a feature in which voters type in their addresses and the program finds their ward, their division, and the location of their polling place. When I talked to him, he was engaged in a tug-of-war with the city commissioners, who oversee the election process. Goppelt had asked for a computer-friendly copy of the city voter rolls. The commissioners were resisting - even though there are court rulings that say they must give it out, and at a reasonable fee. Over breakfast, Goppelt was plotting ways to extract a copy. I won't go into details. Suffice it to say it involves a lawyer as a helper - and another trip into the maze. Tom Ferrick's e-mail address is tferrick@phillynews.com.
Copyright (c) 2001 The Philadelphia Inquirer Record Number: 7003085258 |