To the editor:

I have helped institute e-mail discussion listservers for over a dozen groups. It nearly always improves openness, effectiveness, and vitality of the organization, sometimes spectacularly. Initially, people always worry about too much or too little e-mail, unfairness to those lacking e-mail, difficulties of learning to use computers. I also suspect there are unvoiced fears of widening participation. With experience, complaints go away.

Journal-World editors say planning commissioners should not have a public listserve (J-W, Dec. 30). They give all the same old, wrong reasons. They also have a new reason: alleged violation of the Kansas Open Meetings Act.

That is highly ironical, if true, and the law should be changed. The sole purpose of KOMA is to increase public access to information about public decision-making. A public listserve lets anyone subscribe and receive, at home, free and verbatim, every posted message. They can also find old messages on a Web site, or search the archive for particular subjects.

Contrast that with commission study sessions: Usually no one from the public attends. Thankfully, sometimes a J-W reporter attends and publishes some highlights. Lawrence has fewer J-W subscribers than e-mail addresses.

Some e-mail services are cheaper than J-W subscriptions. While I support stronger efforts to eliminate the “digital divide,” people who can’t afford e-mail at home can get it free at the public library. There are devices for people who can’t read newspapers to hear their e-mail. The idea that a public listserve obstructs openness is unfounded misinformation.

David Burress,

Lawrence-Douglas County planning commissioner