Legislative systems help public keep tabs

Following the Nevada legislature - whether you're inside or outside the legislative building - will be easier this year.

For one, the legislature's web site for the first time is offering online bill tracking.

Anyone can track up to five bills for free.

The service provides online access to reports about a user's selected bills.

The service has four other paid options that allow a user to track between 10 bills, for $50, and an unlimited number of bills, for $500.

Those users receive twice-daily emails that provide a status report on tracked bills and a listing of all legislation introduced that day.

So far, 410 people have signed up for the new bill tracking service, according to Allan Smith, manager, information systems at the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

Of those, 128 are free accounts and 282 are one of the paid options.

The senate and assembly meetings and sessions also can be watched at the legislature's web site, at leg.state.nv.us.

Users need the Windows Media Player installed on their computers.

Both audio-only, best for those with slower dial-up connections, and video, for those with cable, DSL or T1 access, are available.

Anyone can also voice his or her opinion on legislation via the web.

"What's Your Opinion?" is available from the site's home page and lets visitors post whether they are for or against any given bill and to write a comment about it.

The results are provided to the legislators in a weekly report.

During the 2001 session, 35,000 opinions were posted, according to Smith.

Inside the building, users can get wireless access for their notebook PCs.

For $240 the LCB provides a Linksys Group Inc.

PC Card and a set up that lets users access the Internet and email via a wireless network.

There are 20 Linksys or 3Com Corp.

access points connected to the internal wireline category 5 network inside the building.

Those access points provide connections to the wireless network in the lobbyist room and the deli on the first floor, and in public and committee rooms throughout the building.

"The Internet connection is 6 megabits, which is quite a bit faster than DSL and especially dial up," said Smith.

"We're getting close to running out of IP addresses, but we could establish another gateway to get more."

The LCB has 60 IP addresses; a single IP address is needed for each PC to access the network.

About 40 people have already signed up for the service, said Smith, and another gateway would allow a total of 256 users on the network.

The legislators have similar access, with tighter security.

In fact, the service primarily aimed at lobbyists came about when the LCB updated the legislators' network.

"We had a lot of old equipment just hanging around so during the last session we offered a rental card for the public areas," said Smith.

"About 25 or 30 people signed up for that."