Dear Dr. Bob: I get more mail from across the country than my staff and I can possibly answer, and we want to give priority to those writers I actually represent, in the Fourth Congressional District of Massachusetts. Zip codes allow us to screen out letters from far away, but is there a way to sort email geographically?
Dr. Bob: Well, Congressman Frank, you could filter email based on the location of each correspondent's ISP, but you'd find that an overwhelming number of letter writers appear to live in Vienna, Virginia, the home of AOL. Let me suggest a rethink: Don't supply a simple contact email address. Instead, provide a customized response form on your homepage. A natty-looking form can be installed in an afternoon by a good Web consulting company (try SiteCentric, though they're based in California's Eighth Congressional District - Nancy Pelosi country). Require your correspondents to enter their name, street address, zip code, and email address when they submit a comment or question. Then you can sort messages geographically as they come in, giving priority to constituents.
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