Convio and Congressional Use of Logic Puzzles
Convio helps many of the nation's leading nonprofits leverage the Internet to mobilize constituents to advocate on important public policy issues. We are committed to ensuring that it is easy for our customers' constituents to communicate with lawmakers on a timely basis. So, we are actively involved in working to develop an alternative to the use of logic puzzles by members of Congress, as explained below.
Congress, constituent communications and logic puzzles
As you may be aware, a growing number of Congressional offices are implementing technology that adds a step to the process for constituents who want to communicate with their federal legislators. The new technology, commonly known as a logic puzzle, requires human interaction and is intended to prevent automated and repeated mass use of Web site functions such as sending emails or creating accounts — actions not initiated by real people. You may have seen similar puzzles on other Web sites, particularly when creating a new email address with an Internet Service Provider. To see an example of the "Write Your Representative" program that participating U.S. Representatives are using, visit http://www.house.gov/writerep/lp_demo.shtml.
What's behind Congressional adoption of logic puzzles?
Adoption by numerous Congressional offices of logic puzzles is the result of several factors: growing use of email by advocacy organizations and their constituents; lack of adequate Congressional staff to handle rising email volumes; and pervasive distrust of form letters on Capitol Hill. With the advent of the Internet, especially email, constituents today are more empowered than ever before to reach politicians and they are doing so with robust online tools provided by companies like Convio. Constituents often use "form" communications to reach Congress — letters with identical content, but from different senders. Form letters are, of course, very efficient for nonprofits conducting advocacy campaigns and also for participating constituents.
Not surprisingly, from 1995 to 2004, individual communications to Congress increased four-fold due to electronic communications, according to a study by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps Congress become more productive and effective through better management. However, Congressional office staffing has not grown at an equal pace, so Capitol Hill faces an uphill battle to respond in a timely manner. Additionally, the CMF study states that approximately three-quarters of all Congressional offices do not trust the legitimacy of form letters. (It's important to also note that the CMF study finds no evidence that responsible nonprofits are using tools provided by vendors like Convio to send communications without constituents' knowledge.)
Convio's response and action plan
Developing an alternative to logic puzzles is very important to Convio. The ability of constituents to freely communicate with their elected officials goes to the heart of the democratic process. So we at Convio are taking a three-pronged approach.
First, we are collaborating with our customers, other vendors serving the nonprofit sector and CMF on developing a longer term win-win-win policy solution so that: constituents can communicate in whichever manner they choose; nonprofits and their vendors can reliably deliver these communications without undue infrastructure and expense; and Congress can easily hear from constituents without being buried under a mountain of communications. Convio's CTO, Dr. David Crooke, has been a regular, vocal participant in various listservs for nonprofit professionals discussing and debating the issue as well as solutions. Also, Convio is among a group of experts invited to meet with CMF to discuss potential solutions, including a draft proposal that we've developed.
Second, in the interim, we are adding functionality to Convio Advocacy to allow communications with minimum effort. We are changing the process flow so that a logic puzzle on a Congressional office form will appear to a constituent as a part of the "send" process. A constituent will have the additional step of solving the puzzle, but will not have to re-enter his or her message. In some cases, Congressional Web sites may not use logic puzzles but are configured so that they cannot receive any communications unless a constituent comes directly to the site. Under this circumstance, Convio will provide a link to take the constituent directly to the legislator's form along with instructions on how to cut and paste his or her message into the form. All these changes are planned for implementation on Wednesday, June 28, 2006.
Third, through this communication, we are alerting our customers and other interested nonprofit sector participants about the grassroots coalition working to find an alternative to Congress' use of logic puzzles. That coalition, spearheaded by several people including Kathy Mitchell of Consumers Union, has a Web site, http://www.dontblockmyvoice.org/, where you can click on the tab for "Group Letter" to add your organization's name to an open letter to Congress and get involved in other ways.
We trust that this update is informative and helpful to your organization. We will continue to be involved in this important issue and update you as developments warrant. Please feel free to contact us at info@convio.com if you have questions or comments.
