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By Sarah Fallon
Whether it be quick composting tips or a complete home course on ichthyology, a search
for "environment" using Digital's AltaVista search engine altavista.digital.com yields more than 2,700,000
links, some useful (the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
site) and some mundane (the corrugated cardboard products site).
If you want your search to be more than an overwhelming meander through cyberspace,
click to the Sierra Club Web site www.sierraclub.org, a goldmine of
information and resources for members and the general public alike. Sierra
magazine and The Planet are archived here; there are also links to chapter and group homepages, newsletters, environmental education resources and other useful sites. Members
and activists will be most interested in the Sierra Club action updates, conservation updates and regional news. You can also search through the outings page for trips in your area of interest, print out book order forms, flip through congressional
voter-charts and research candidate positions. You can do a keyword search of the site
by going to www.sierraclub.org/search.html. The site receives
approximately 4,400 visits per day, and this number is only expected to increase.
The Sierra Club ListServ system, which allows us to
build a grassroots organization of "digital activists," is a more interactive
tool. The largest list, Sierra Club action
alerts, has nearly 4,000 subscribers. A ListServ is an e-mail system that allows
subscribers to participate in discussions on topics of mutual interest and receive
relevant mailings. While a particularly active list can fill up your mailbox pretty
quickly (imagine being in a room full of people and getting an e-mail every time someone
said anything) the lists are a good way to stay abreast of issues and share ideas and
resources with others interested in the same topic. To receive a complete list of Sierra
Club lists, send an e-mail with the command LISTS in the body (not the
subject line) of the message to <listserv@lists.sierraclub.org>.
The message you get back will give you the addresses of lists like action alerts, the
newsfeed, a discussion group on hormone mimickers, and hiking and climbing groups. For a
handy list of ListServ commands, send the message
GET LISTSERV REFCARD
to the ListServ address above.
These technological resources are increasingly important in developing quick-response
grassroots communication. The Club was one of the first environmental organizations to
establish a presence on the Internet and our approach to Web design and content has made
us a significant player and oft-consulted resource for people looking for information on
environmental issues.
Back to The Planet (May 1997)
Back to Sierra Club home page
http://www.sierraclub.org/planet/199705/electronic.asp
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