599 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
599 lines
26 KiB
Plaintext
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NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY : January 17, 1994
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Networks and Community is devoted to encouraging
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LOCAL resource creation & GLOBAL resource sharing.
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compiler : Sam Sternberg samsam@vm1.yorku.ca
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This 3rd report of 1994 is the 9th weekly survey.
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Coverage includes
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ADMINISTRATION POLICY - DISCUSSIONS - NEW SERVICES
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FUNDING - TRENDS
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-------------------------------------------------------
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ADMINISTRATION POLICY
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Evidence of the adminstation's interest in the community networking
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movement is mounting.
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---------------------------------
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Vice-President Al Gore accepted an invitation from Dr. Avrum
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Bluming to dedicate the Los Angeles Free-Net in March. He did so
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in response to an invitation from the floor by Dr. Bluming at the
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National Information Infrastructure Summit at UCLA
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and before a national audience on C-SPAN.!
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--------------------------------
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Tom Kalil, <tkalil@arpa.mil> with the White House National
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Economic Council posted to the Communet listserve regarding
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Monday's adminstration announcement about the application process
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for the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community initiative.
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"After information on the initiative is on the Internet, I would
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like to know whether this mailing list would be willing to
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"brainstorm" on what role the NII could play in promoting the goals
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of the initiative. The Vice President has stated his interest in
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exploring this issue. After some period of time, the
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list could provide the Administration with an archive of the
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discussion and a summary of the points made."
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He made several suggestions for possible subjects:
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" Different empowerment zones could exchange information on their
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goals for community and economic revitalization. The gov't could
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streamline the applications process using EDI. Communities could
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use "civic networks" to make the process of planning and
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implementing community revitalization a more democratic one.
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Education and training programs could take advantage
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of the Internet or video servers. Local governments could use
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information technology to deliver services more efficiently ...
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Inspiring examples and pointers to people, information, resources
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would also be helpful. Potential roles for grassroots
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organizations, gov't at all levels, private sector, and just plain
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folks would be helpful."
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He went on to say " How do I know anyone will read and take
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seriously our proposals? I will personally commit to providing a
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summary of any ensuing discussion to the relevant people in the
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Administration.
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So, YOU ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE, I hope many of you will.
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--------------------------
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The text of all recent speeches and background documents are
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available through the gopher server at :
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--> ace.esusda.gov
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choose 4. Americans Communicating Electronically/
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9. National Performance Review Information/
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9. Telecommunications Policy Reform Initiative/
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: If you have questions concerning this
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service, please contact: almanac-admin@ace.esusda.gov (almanac
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administration)
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-------------------------------
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DISCUSSION
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COMMUNET LISTSERV
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Gore's speeches are being discussed on Communet. The attitude is
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cautiously favorable. The administration seems to be slowing
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convincing many of the participants of its sincerity.
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--------------------------------------
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The most interesting dissenting voice came from a posting of
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the following opinion piece. Reprinted from _The Chronicle of
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Higher Education_, vol. 40, no. 19 (12 January 1994), pp. B1-B2:
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Democratizing Technology By Richard E. Sclove
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The entire article was posted but this part impressed me most
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........ " It's a beguiling vision, but it overlooks a major
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factor:
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democracy. Few citizens, workers, or communities are being
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consulted about technology decisions that their taxes will help
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support, decisions that will profoundly affect their lives.
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It _is_ possible to involve citizens in making technology
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policy. Last year, for example, a panel of ordinary Danish
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citizens spent several days hearing expert presentations on
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genetic manipulation in animal breeding. After cross-examining
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the experts and deliberating among themselves, the citizens
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decided that it would be "entirely unacceptable" to genetically
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ngineer new pets, but ethical to use such methods to develop a
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treatment for cancer.
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To organize this type of "consensus conference," the Danish
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government's Technology Board selects panels of citizens of
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varying backgrounds, and then publicizes their judgments through
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the news media, local debates, leaflets, and videos. Surveys
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show that the Danish public and politicians are better informed
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on issues addressed this way than are the citizens of other
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countries facing similar questions.
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During a recent briefing at the U.S. Office of Technology
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Assessment, Norman Vig, a political scientist from Carleton
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College argued that consensus conferences represent a promising
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model for the United States to use to broaden the range of people
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who influence technological decisions. Universities could
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contribute substantially to democratizing technology if such a
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model were adopted--by helping citizen advisory panels analyze
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complex technical issues, by preparing "social impact" statements
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on technological proposals, and by creating community-research
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centers to help neighborhoods evaluate and influence alternative
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strategies for economic development.
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Government officials report that today just three groups
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dominate technology policy-making: the Pentagon and the national
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weapons laboratories, elite academic scientists, and business.
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The political scientist Philip Frankenfeld has called the
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resulting range of opinion "the sound of one wagon circling."
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Public interest groups, grass roots organizations, and ordinary
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citizens represent a negligible force."
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---------------------
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A posting of a proposed new cable regulation policy from Washington
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State has generated considerable heated debate. It is intended to
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prevent monopoly control over local systems and mandate universal
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access. So far debate has divided along traditional lines - free
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the marketplace vs protect us against it. The legislation in its
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final form should benefit from the comments by an increased
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precision of focus and clarified expression of its intent.
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The one real benefit to most lurkers has been the posting of very
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precise data on the percentage of american households with phone
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service.
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-----------------------
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A provocative posting on problems with the communet movement also
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generated a lot of comment. The poster suggested that most effort
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at building geographic communities was a waste of time. A few folks
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agreed but many respondents strongly disagreed.
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" And most computer people are not interested in geographic
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community. They use freenets as free (or cheap) on-ramps to the
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Internet. [ provocative poster ]
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" My personal experience contrasts with this. I *am* a Computer
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Person (sounds like the beginnings of a 12 step program). Virtual
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community appeals to me. I have made countless friends around the
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US and around e world, and have shared joy and sadness with them.
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I've gotten incredible advice and support from some of them, and
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others have raised my blood pressure to unimaginable levels.
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BUT ... although the WELL is not a community net in the sense of
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free or low cost access, I am growing a local, geographic community
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through the people I have met on this system. We have lunch. We
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go to each others houses. I trust them. They hire me. I fall in
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love with them. I see and touch them. Geographic, corporeal
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community supplements the virtual.
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And when I travel, the non-locals show me around, give me shelter,
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and enrich my life.
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The Internet is a big kick, but ultimately, it's boring. It's the
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people who are out there using it that make it interesting. The
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bottom line, I think, that computer-mediated communications works
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for enough people that our efforts are not wasted."
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The most interesting negative comment focused on the need to make
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civic nets easy to use if we expect most people to get involved.
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---------------------------
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Another discussion focused on the question of subsidizing the
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community nets and the Internet. Again the usual position were
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taken, but the conclusion seemed to be that some form of subsidies
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were inevitable. The issue was really how to do an effective job of
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using the funding.
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--------------------------------------
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NPTN LISTSERV
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Redefining NPTN is now its major task. 3 areas are being examined.
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I. ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES
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How should NPTN define itself as an organization? More
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specifically what are the key function(s) it should be playing over
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the next three years?
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II. COMMUNITY COMPUTING AND ECONOMICS
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How do we build a stable economic model that will support the
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development of both NPTN and each of the individual affiliate
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systems?
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III. NPTN AND POLITICAL ACTION
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Should NPTN take an active stance in the development of federal.
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state, and/or local legislation or regulation to promote the
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development of community computing?
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---------------------------
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Nptn now has 108 affilated networks and organizing commities in 6
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countries. All 6 countries - U.S., Canada, Finland, Germany,
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Sweden, and New Zealand - have operating networks. With more on the
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way.
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---------------------------
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Academy 1 - Nptn's K-12 program was featured on a recent segment of
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the CNN special on the information Superhighway. Scripts can be
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viewed on the Well's gopher --> well.nkosi.sf.ca.us
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----------------------------
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Access for the disabled is made more difficult by graphical
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interfaces. Their voice synthesisers can't handle the "decoration".
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Discussion emphasised the need to continue text based access even
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as more graphical interfaces are introduced.
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-----------------------------
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The system administrator at the Finland Free-Net site
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in Vaasa, Finland informed NPTN that they have changed their
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Internet address. If you have Vaasa on your teleport,
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please point it to: freeport.uwasa.fi
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Remember this is a change in the VAASA site NOT in the Helsinki
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site.
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-----------------------------
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Several Free-nets shared news of funding successes. Including local
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alliances with T.V. stations and even army bases.
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------------------------------
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The collaborative project with the Congressional Office
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of Technology Assessment has begun; and the following five
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systems will run the "OTA Tele-
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forum" feature for the next three weeks:
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Buffalo Free-Net
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Cleveland Free-Net
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Denver Free-Net
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Tallahassee Free-Net
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Youngstown Free-Net
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Over the next five years the Social Security Administration
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(SSA) intends to spend about $1.1 billion on information systems
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procurement and modernization. Critics of SSA--most notably
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the General Accounting Office--say that SSA does not have a
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solid justification for this huge investment. That they have not
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shown that it will result in improved service delivery, or an
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improved work environment.
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To help settle this dispute both agencies turned to the
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Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) to do a
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study of the issue. The OTA, in turn, has asked the National
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Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) to set-up an electronic
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forum which would allow YOU to express your opinions on the
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matter.
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Here's how it works...
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When you enter the TeleForums you will be able to select any
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(or all) of four issues to comment upon. The issues have to do
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with:
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1) SOCIAL SECURITY AND CUSTOMER INTERACTION
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2) NETWORK ACCESS TO BENEFIT FILING SERVICES
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3) DISTRIBUTION OF BENEFITS
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4) YOUR GENERAL SATISFACTION WITH THE SSA
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You then choose the issue you want to examine and READ THE FILE
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CALLED "README." This file will contain a summary of the issue
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and the kind of things we would like the discussions to focus on.
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Each of these forums will be running simultaneously on NPTN
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affiliates.
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NEW SERVICES
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===============
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KNOWBOTS HAVE APPEARED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA!
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A new command "the update command", enables users of the Library's
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MELVYL databases to create a search in a database to be run
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automatically on a weekly basis. As new records are added to
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the database, with the results are sent to the users e-mail
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address. This feature is often called "current awareness" or
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"selective dissemination of information" (SDI). It is a convenient
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way to stay current with recent journal articles on a particular
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topic, the work of a particular author, new books on a topic being
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cataloged for the UC collections, or the table of contents of
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selected journals. This command may be used in any MELVYL database
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except the PE (Periodical Titles) database.
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AUTOMATED VERONICA MENU BUILDER
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The use of veronica is estimated to be about 1,000,000 searches per
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month now. There are only a few well-known sites offering veronica
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access menus: Nevada, Minnesota, SUNET, NYSERNET, and a few
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others. These access menus are used pretty heavily.
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Steven Foster ( foster@nevada.edu ) has written a program which you
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may use to create a menu of active veronica servers within your
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gopher server menu. This program can be run frequently to ensure
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that the menu does not display veronica sites which are down for
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maintenance or unavailable because of network problems.
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Tentatively it is called "maltshop". Version 0.2 is now
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available.
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You can fetch the program by gopher or by ftp.
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By gopher: Path=0/veronica/maltshop-0.2
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Host=veronica.scs.unr.edu
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Port=70
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Type=0
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by ftp:
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anonymous ftp to veronica.scs.unr.edu
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/veronica-code/menu-builder-0.2
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----------------------------
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A PLACE TO ANNOUNCE NEW FREE SERVICES & SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS
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Richard W. Wiggins <rww@mugwump.cl.msu.edu> announced:
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comp.infosystems.announce
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"This is to formally announce the creation of a new Usenet group,
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comp.infosystems.announce. This news group was created to provide
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a single place where Internet information providers can announce
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newly-created and significantly-updated resources. The Call
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for Votes for creation of this group passed 574:2, which is
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believed to be a record ratio of Yes to No votes in a Usenet vote.
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The group is moderated. In keeping with the charter, postings
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should be announcements of new information resources, or new
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releases of Internet navigation/document delivery tools. Followup
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discussions should be carried out in other news groups in the
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comp.infosystems hierarchy, or other Usenet groups, or mailing
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lists, as appropriate. The initial moderator is Rich Wiggins,
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[ Wiggins has been a major contributor to the development of the
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Internet's cooperative spirit - ed ] He is the campus-wide
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information system coordinator at Michigan State University.
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Announcements to be posted should be sent via e-mail:
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infosys@msu.edu
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Administrivia should be sent to: infosys-request@msu.edu
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This is a Usenet News group, not a mailing list. Please do not
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send requests to subscribe to this news group. Please contact your
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Internet service provider for information on how to read Usenet
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News if you are not familiar with the options. If you might be
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able to offer a mailing list gateway please let Wiggins know at
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infosys-request@msu.edu.
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To keep this news group useful and manageable, please think of it
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as a place to announce new collections of information or
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significant new versions of tools. This news group is intended to
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primarily announce resources that are freely-available. By
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"resources" we mean documents or tools that exist today and are
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usable on the Internet. Announcements of conferences, seminars, new
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network consulting companies, new print magazines or books, etc.
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are best presented elsewhere.
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-------------------------------------
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FREE OFFER
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PeaceNet World News Service (PWN) is a electronic mail delivered
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news publication covering either a specific area of the world or an
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issue of global importance. Each day, three to ten articles along
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with a table of contents is delivered to you as a single e-mail
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message.
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PeaceNet World News Service brings relevant news not found
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elsewhere. PeaceNet World News Service is a non-profit,
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non-commercial service dedicated to a free and balanced flow of
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multi-sourced news featuring first hand international news about
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the environment, human rights, development, the United Nations
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process, and the work of non-government organizations.
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The anchor of the PeaceNet World News Service is the Inter
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Press Service (IPS). IPS is ranked the world's fifth largest in
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terms of media clients. Virtually invisible in the United States,
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IPS aims to improve South->South and South->North news flows. While
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western news agencies tend to focus on political affairs, coups,
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crises and conflicts, IPS delivers news that is analytical and
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contextualized, newsthat stresses global interdependence. IPS's
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writers are all local people covering the areas in which they live.
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IPS articles appear three days after copyright. In addition to
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IPS, PWN includes sample articles from the PeaceNet and EcoNet
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computer networks. Sources include the Pacific News Service, the
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United Nation Information Centre, Third World Network Features and
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others.
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For a complete brochure with a signup form, prices and instructions
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on testing out the service e-mail to pwn-info@igc.apc.org.
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----------------------------------
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ANOTHER EFFORT TO MAKE GOPHER SYSTEMS EASIER TO USE
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"The William H. Welch Medical Library has released a new biomedical
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gopher, the Welch Medical Library Gopher. The team that has
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developed this gopher is taking a somewhat non-traditional approach
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to organizing its menus selecting a task organization. We would be
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very interested in hearing other developers thoughts about this
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design scheme. The idea is that users connecting to the gopher
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commonly have a task in mind. For instance they want to find
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research supporting resources, or they want to check up on the
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news, or they are looking for information on patient care.
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To accommodate this desire on the part of users we have created the
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following top level menu design.
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1. Using this gopher server/
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2. Welch Medical Library resources and services/
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3. Basic science research resources/
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4. Caring for patients/
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5. Exploring the Internet/
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6. Finding people on the Internet/
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7. Funding resources/
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8. Health policy resources/
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9. Hopkins resources and services/
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10. Keeping up with the news/
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11. Scientific writing and publishing resources/
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12. Teaching, education, and course resources/
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One consequence of this design is that many resources are useful
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for several tasks and thus there is a lot of redundancy in the
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resources listed. We have also had to point to resources
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relatively deeply embedded in other gopher servers. Merely
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pointing to the NIH gopher is not sufficient, with the funding menu
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we have to pinpoint the NIH funding information while we point to
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NIH patient care resources under our third menu option." We have
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undertaken this level of maintence complexity in the belief that we
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are adding a lot of value to these resources by adopting the
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task-based organizational scheme."
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It can be accessed by gophering to
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welchlink.welch.jhu.edu. Specific comments can be sent to
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Karla Hahn <khahn@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu>
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-----------------------------------------------
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Statistics Canada is setting up a Gopher server with a WAIS search
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engine. The Gopher will be used to disseminate information about
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Statistics Canada, inform users on available reasources and provide
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users with information on ordering statistical services and
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products. They hope to make the Gopher a user drived service and
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will be requesting suggestions and ideas from the user community
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In addition, they will set up a LISTSERV. details will be supplied
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when available.
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I suggest anyone contacting them emphasise the need to place
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publicly funded statistical data on the gopher without charge. It
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is all to clear that that won't happen without lots of public
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demand. STATSCAN is a bastion of the popular Canadian government
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attitude - MAKE THEM PAY TWICE.
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EVENTS
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=============
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The eighth annual Canadian Networking Conference will be held at
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the University of Saskatchewan at Saskatoon from June 21 to 23,
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1994. Networking '94 is held under the auspices of the CA*net,
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CANARIE Associates, and NetNorth, and the regional networks across
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Canada.
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The Program Committee for Net'94 is seeking contributed papers
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for this year's conference. The theme of the conference is
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THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE AND VISION
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Papers relating to the theme or topics of practical interest to
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the participants will be considered including:
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o CANARIE projects
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o New and interesting network-related applications
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o Network management tools and techniques
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o The Network as a tool - how networks enable new capabilities
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o User experience
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o Multimedia
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o Network servers and services
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o Supporting the Network User
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The program will also include updates on networking
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The presentation including any desired hand-outs must be
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submitted by May 31, 1994.
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Please direct other enquiries to:
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Heather Friesen - e-mail: Net94@Usask.ca
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----------------------------
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REPRESENTATIVE SAM COPPERSMITH
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announced a gopher server containing his position papers and press
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releases. The gopher also has connections to other governmental
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servers. To see it, point your gopher to Arizona State University.
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Once here, select "Arizona Statewide Information" from the first
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menu. Next select "U.S. Rep. Sam Coppersmith."
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Rep. Coppersmith may be the first Congressperson to offer such a
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service - they checked but did not find anyone else with one. He is
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also one of those first 12 members testing e-mail. In addition, he
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has a listserv based at ASU.
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When asked why do it, Coppersmith said: 1) It is useful as a
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learning tool to try out the Internet and see what's out there and;
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2) It is a way to re-connect people with the government.
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congressman Coppersmith's email address is (samaz01@hr.house.gov)
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---------------------------------
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Robert Brunwin de Jong, Wassenaar, The Netherlands wrote to inform
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us: " yesterday the City of Amsterdam introduced its "digital city"
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|
experiment. During the coming two or three months citizens from
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|
that city and, in fact, from all over the country, as long as they
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|
have a computer, communication software, a phone and a modem, can
|
|
phone in, access local government officiers, politicians and
|
|
documentation, and try the Internet.
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|
|
|
Some free entry terminals have been situated in some public places,
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|
and my evening newspaper tells me that the 20 special phone-lines
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|
are not enough at all and that people were queuing up all day. Most
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|
people do not succeed, they can not come thru because lines are
|
|
engaged most of the time.
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|
|
|
The experiment was introduced by the deputy mayor of the city in a
|
|
short celebration in which he sent a message to vice president
|
|
Gore - fortunately nobody in the celebration room witnessed that,
|
|
due to a typing error, the message bounced. It went OK the second
|
|
time. We"ve not heard about Gore"s reply."
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----------------------------
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|
TRENDS
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The rate of organization of new civic network commities is growing.
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|
In Canada this week 2 new groups - unaffilated as of yet with any
|
|
larger group like NPTN or Telecommunities Canada - made their
|
|
existance know. One, HOMEnet, is focusing on several counties in
|
|
South Central Ontario; another is located in Winnipeg Manitoba.
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|
-------------------------
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|
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|
The administration's leadership had lead to astonishing growth in
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|
the commitment of new resources for K-12 programs. The major
|
|
announcement was from the announced alliance of Bell Atlantic
|
|
Corporation and Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI). They promised the
|
|
largest corporate program ever to link classrooms to the NII.
|
|
Under the plan, known as the Basic Education Connection,
|
|
the more than 26,000 elementary and secondary schools in
|
|
areas served by the two companies ultimately will connect
|
|
to the national information infrastructure. This
|
|
represents about 25% of K-12 schools in the nation.
|
|
|
|
Bell Atlantic/TCI said they will consult with local
|
|
schools,education associations, higher education
|
|
authorities, the Congress, government agencies, and other relevant
|
|
authorities. They called upon those companies to provide their
|
|
services at no charge to K-12 schools, as well.
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Many of the listserves are showing a growing interest in multimedia
|
|
or graphics interfaces. These new efforts look more likely to
|
|
succeed than prior efforts at the introduction of protocals like
|
|
NAPLPS. Why? Because they are based on collectively evolved
|
|
standards that remain in the public domain.
|
|
|
|
Among the growing list of prior failures - Bell Canada has applied
|
|
to the CRTC to discontinue Alex (the videotext service). Bell
|
|
claims lack of interest among customers and service providers
|
|
(indeed, there are very few service providers left, and about the
|
|
only thing running is the electronic white pages). Despite the
|
|
fanfare of hi-res neato NAPLPS grafix, the gross commercialism of
|
|
the service did not hold the public's imagination for long.
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
|
|
The public debate and industry response to administration efforts
|
|
is not all favorable. The following two items reposted from the
|
|
EDUCOM bi-weekly service are indications of the kind of obsticles
|
|
that lie ahead. We must all be involved in education the general
|
|
public on these issues.
|
|
|
|
BASIC SERVICES ONLY, PLEASE. Consumer groups are pressuring
|
|
government officials to ensure protection for people who only want
|
|
basic telephone service from the high costs of tomorrow's
|
|
electronic superhighway. The groups fear phone companies will
|
|
raise rates paid by ordinary phone users to finance high-tech
|
|
advancements benefiting mainly business and high-income customers.
|
|
(Toronto Globe & Mail, 01/07/94 B2).
|
|
|
|
BROAD OR NARROW? The Supreme Court is considering whether cable TV
|
|
should be given the broad free-speech protection given to
|
|
newspapers or the more narrow protection granted to broadcast TV
|
|
and sales. Cable companies are arguing that the government is
|
|
infringing on their rights by forcing them to local broadcast
|
|
stations. (The Trenton Times 1/13/94 D1)
|
|
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|
==============================================
|
|
NETWORKS and COMMUNITY is a public service of FUTURE DATA; a
|
|
partnership of researchers and research system designers. Our
|
|
research resources include all commercial and non commercial
|
|
nets, along with over 200 cd-rom databases, 50,000 magazines and
|
|
more than 30 million books. For commercial services contact
|
|
Gwyneth Store - circa@io.org
|
|
|
|
This newsletter is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN and may be used as you
|
|
see fit. To contribute items or enguire about this newsletter
|
|
contact Sam Sternberg samsam@vm1.yorku.ca
|
|
.
|
|
|