Former New York Times reporter Phil Gutis isn't afraid to alienate the US government in order to save it. As communications director for the American Civil Liberties Union, Phil works from inside the Beltway to organize and mobilize the 78-year-old public interest organization's media outreach, field organizing, and Internet work at its 300 chapters and 53 remote offices.
"It's all about increasing constituent pressure on Congress," Phil explains, in order to fight populist or special-interest threats to American civil rights. As the reach and power of the Net expands, Phil is looking to hire a "Cyberorganizer" to ask, as he puts it, "what's out there that we should be tapping into, and how do we do it? How can we better get our word out and get people involved?" The Cyberorganizer will be responsible not only for understanding emerging Net technology, but for putting it to good use, enabling the ACLU's field team to mobilize and grow those hundreds of chapters in ways not previously possible.
"I was tired of observing folks doing stuff. I wanted to do it myself," Phil says of his career move from reporter to activist. "I had always loved the law and the legislative process. The ACLU is one of the few national organizations with a strong legal and legislative presence." The ACLU has often taken unpopular stands on civil rights issues, believing fervently that constitutional protection and "liberty and justice for all" extend to even the most unpopular Americans, including flag-burners. And Nazis.
But, whether popularly supported or not, the organization has always pursued its agenda with uncanny effectiveness. As communications director, Phil's three-pronged approach gets the ACLU's message across: traditional public-relations work with the media, field organizing through chapters and field offices, and utilizing the fast-growing Internet. Phil sees the Net as the most powerful way to increase both citizens' and politicians' awareness of his organization's agenda as the millennium approaches.
"Let's say we hear about a fast-moving situation on Capitol Hill," he theorizes, "such as a bill being rushed out of committee overnight for a surprise vote on the House floor." With the ACLU's Action Alert email service, thousands of active chapter members nationwide can be notified within hours. They can connect to ACLU.org and use forms there to quickly send faxes to their representatives for free, using ACLU.org's fax servers. Email would be cheaper and faster, but for sending a clear message to Congress, "there's nothing like a jammed fax machine," Phil grins.
Finding and implementing this sort of optimal mix of old and new technologies will be just one part of the Cyberorganizer's role. The ideal candidate will understand not only computer networks, but people networks. Strengthening ties among members of the field offices and chapters will enable the ACLU to make best use of the Internet for all of them. Likewise, while the ability to whip up a Web page is as much a requirement as knowing how to use a word processor, the Cyberorganizer needn't play webmaster for the five-person field team. Internet services are handled by an ISP in the suburbs.
Mixing the ACLU's card-carrying activism with the exploding opportunities of the Net requires someone who sees cyberspace as the ideal mix of exciting new technologies and powerful connections among people. One thing is for certain: This isn't another temporary Web job. It's clear to Phil from his view overlooking Capitol Hill that the Internet isn't going to usher in an era of peace and harmony any time soon. "The threats don't disappear," Phil says knowingly. "They move online."
For additional information about this dream job, please contact Phil Gutis at the ACLU.
This article appeared originally in HotWired.
