Until recently, the distance between Silicon Valley and Washington DC was not so much a matter of mileage as culture. Notoriously libertarian, the technology industry yawned at the cut-and-thrust world of Pennsylvania Avenue politics, while legislators' eyes glazed at the mention of routers and bytes.

But with key technology issues like data privacy, Internet censorship, and cryptography not to mention anti-trust legislation becoming major issues, the US technology industry has realised politics is not just for the digitally inept.

Even Bill Gates who will probably be facing expanded Department of Justice anti-trust charges against Microsoft has learned to play Washington's game.

Behind the scenes, he's bolstered his recent, polite appearances before Congressional questioners by intensifying Microsoft's six-strong Washington lobby, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman.

But compare that to battle-scarred IBM, which suffered years ago under the US government's anti-trust lash it now maintains a small army of 24 lobbyists. In the technology world, skilled lobbyists may soon outrank adept programmers.

Cue the arrival of the Technology Network, TechNet for short, a bipartisan political advocacy group created to promote selected industry points of view and to foster what TechNet's vice-president of public policy and communications, Michael Engelhardt, calls "face-time" with politicians. "I think TechNet is evidence of a sea change, both in the minds of Washington politicians and Silicon Valley executives," says Mr Engelhardt.

Started nine months ago by Netscape CEO, Mr Jim Barksdale and Silicon Valley's king of venture capitalists, John Doerr, TechNet has a membership roster which reads like the guest-list at one of Silicon Valley's swankier parties.

Hewlett-Packard CEO Lew Platt, AOL CEO Steve Case, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Gateway 2000 CEO Ted Waitt, self-described "Chief Yahoo" Jerry Yang, Sybase CEO Mitch Kertzman, C/Net CEO Halsey Minor, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Microsoft chief operating officer Bob Herbold the membership list is a four-page computer printout of silicon-enabled wealth and clout.

For an industry that generates 40 per cent of the US's s gross national product, the technology sector has been surprisingly slow to politicise, not just around issues, but around the time-honoured tradition of cash handouts. Although many of the industry's chief executives run companies which figure in the Fortune 500, only five appeared in one US political magazine's listings of the top donors to political candidates in 1997.

Since TechNet's foundation, Mr Engelhardt says they have gently educated the technology elite about the political process, and encouraged them to make donations, which he claims should place $4 million to $8 million in the coffers of the Democrats and Republicans this year.

But Mr Dan Schnur, TechNet's Republican political director (the meticulously bipartisan organisation has a Democratic political director as well) says it's the personal contact between the lawmakers and the digerati that really pays off: "Anybody can write a cheque, but what makes a much more lasting impact is sitting down with a man or a woman who's created thousands and thousands of jobs," says Mr Schnur. "The technology community represents the future, and I never met a politician of either party who wasn't interested in the future."

Fortunately for TechNet, that's particularly true of President Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, who "reach out very aggressively to this community", according to Mr Schnur.

From the presidential point of view, it's certainly worth networking with perhaps the only industry outside of Hollywood easily able to afford TechNet's recent $50,000 a plate fund-raiser for the cash-strapped Democratic National Committee.

As for Mr Gore, he's such a regular visitor to TechNet gatherings that the crowd he dines with is known as Gore-Tech. House leader Mr Newt Gingrich and a raft of other politicians have also toured Silicon Valley companies courtesy of TechNet.

While Mr Gingrich and others may love mixing with the people behind what Engelhardt calls "the greatest creation of wealth in the history of the world", critics say the technology lobby scores higher on glamour than political effectiveness. "They're the nouveaux riches of the political block. They throw around a lot of money but they don't know how to use it in political circles," says long-time California and Washington lobbyist Dave Jones of the League of California Cities.

"It's a very politically naive industry that's so concerned with competition that dealing with government is a luxury," he says. But he adds that TechNet roundtables and cocktail parties have their place.

"It's certainly the way you start. It could be the beginning of a long and powerful relationship." Without doubt, Washington recognises potential movers and shakers in the shape of moneyed tech CEOs: "If these guys decide they want to get organised there's no limit to what they can do," insists Mr Schnur.

So far, TechNet hasn't been concerned with arguing its case in Europe, but US technology companies maintain a voice in Brussels through individual lobbyists most of the larger companies have one or more based near the European parliament and through their main trade organisation, the American Electronics Association. The AEA set up in Brussels in 1991 now boasts 77 members, companies which keep an eye on how changes in European law may affect their European bottom line.

In Ireland, larger technology companies like Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Dell, and Gateway are listened to by those in Government, either directly or through the Industrial Development Authority. The Irish Software Association also makes sure company voices get heard in the right places.

However, the Irish economy has a lot of growing to do before the ISA can summon Irish technology movers and shakers to £35,000-a-plate political party dinners.

Karlin Lillington is at klillington@irish-times.ie