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NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY : Feb 14, 1994
Networks and Community is devoted to encouraging
LOCAL resource creation & GLOBAL resource sharing.
compiler : Sam Sternberg <samsam@vm1.yorku.ca>
This is the 8th report of 1994
------------------------------
ALERT DISCUSSIONS FUNDRAISING LEGISLATION
REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE TOOLS TRENDS
ALERT - YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT IS NEEDED
========================================
Public interest issues affecting the net may lose the single MOST
IMPORTANT VOICE in the very near future. I personally find that
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is better on the
issues than any other organization.
CPSR is in imminent danger of closing down. Foundation support
has declined this year and it cannot sustain operation on the
income received from dues.
"We are faced with a choice. We can close our doors and hope that
our work will be carried on elsewhere or we can issue one last
appeal or challenge to the computing community. We have chosen to
issue this appeal. I don't want to exaggerate the seriousness of
this appeal - without financial relief in the very near future, we
will close down the doors. (The Spring NII conference will occur
regardless but it may be our last event...)
If you support the goals of CPSR and you believe that our work is
important RIGHT NOW, please consider joining our organization or
sending a donation so we can continue the fight into the 21st
century and beyond.
Small donations - $5 or $10 - are welcome! Of course, larger
donations are even more welcome. If you can make a larger donation
we urge you to do so, but any help is much appreciated. If you
have friends or colleagues who are familiar with the work of CPSR
and have similar concerns as you, please let them know.
===============================================================
CPSR Pledge Form
I want to help retain a strong, independent voice of responsibility
in the computing community. I am making this pledge
Please send this *pledge card* to cpsr@cpsr.org.
__ $5 __ $10 __ $20 __ $30 __ $50
__ $75 __ $100 __ $200 __ $500 __ $1000
__ Other
============================ clip and mail=======================
or BECOME A MEMBER
Name
___________________________________________________________
Address
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip
_____________________________________________________
Home phone _____________________ Work phone______________________
Company
___________________________________________________________
Type of work
______________________________________________________
E-mail address
_____________________________________________________
CPSR Chapter
__ Acadiana __ Austin __ Berkeley
__ Boston
__ Chicago __ Denver/Boulder
__ Los Angeles __ Loyola/New Orleans
__ Madison __ Maine __ Milwaukee
__ Minnesota __ New Haven __ New York
__ Palo Alto __ Philadelphia __ Pittsburgh
__ Portland __ San Diego __ Santa Cruz
__ Seattle __ Washington, DC __ No chapter in my area
CPSR Membership Categories
__ $ 75 REGULAR MEMBER
__ $ 50 Basic member
__ $ 200 Supporting member
__ $ 500 Sponsoring member
__ $1000 Lifetime member
__ $ 20 Student/low income member
__ $ 50 Foreign subscriber
__ $ 50 Library/institutional subscriber
(Corporate memberships also available)
Additional tax-deductible contribution to support CPSR projects:
$50 __ $75 __ $100 __ $250
$500 __ $1000 __ Other
Total Enclosed: $ ________
Make check out to CPSR and mail to:
CPSR
P.O. Box 717
Palo Alto, CA 94301
DISCUSSIONS
===========
NPTN LISTSERV
Details of NPTN's process for re-examining its activities and goals
were posted this past week. Clearly, a total re-assessment is
underway. 4 primary issues are being focused on:
1. The Basic Functions of NPTN
2. The Economics of Community Computing
3. NPTN and Political Action
4. INTRA-Network Relations and Quality Control
a specific listserv for each of these topics was created.
In the TRENDS section I will look recent developments of different
economic models for civic nets.
Tom Grundner - NPTN's founder - outlined the issues from the
freenet perspective.
I THE BASIC FUNCTIONS OF NPTN
THE GENERAL QUESTION: How should NPTN define itself as an
organization? More specifically what are the key function(s) it
should be playing over the next three years?
SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS *MIGHT* INCLUDE:
1) Should NPTN continue to actively "evangelize" for the
development of locally-oriented, "free" (a term to be discussed on
another list), public-access, community computer systems; OR
should we support the development of systems and methods which
bypass these community hubs and encourage direct, pretty much
unlimited, individual access to the Internet (or whatever
successor network)?
- Can the two models co-exist?
- If the evangelism should continue, should it be done more
agressively than we have done it so far?
- If the evangelism should continue, should we be actively
taking this evangelism beyond the borders of the U.S., or
keep all our work within this country?
2) Should NPTN take responsibility for actively helping
communities to come online (e.g. by encouraging formal organizing
committees, allocating citywide "franchises" to local groups,
providing materials, etc.); OR should NPTN simply make information
widely available to anyone and everyone then stay clear until such
time as someone has something tangible up and running?
3) Should NPTN be in the "cybercasting" business? That is: as
these systems come online, should NPTN be attempting to formally
service them by developing a range of network-wide features that
they can use to supplement local resources; OR should each system
simply develop their own materials and just share them with each
other as they feel appropriate?
II. THE ECONOMICS OF COMMUNITY COMPUTING
THE GENERAL QUESTION: How do we build a stable economic model
that will support the development of both NPTN and each of the
individual affiliate systems?
SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS *MIGHT* INCLUDE:
1) Should NPTN create categories of membership based upon the
degree of commercial practices used to support the system. For
example:
- Full Commercial System: One in which the user is charged
an on-going fee for *any* access to the system.
- Commercial I System: One in which some portions of
the system are free to the user, while other portions
require a fee to access or use.
- Commercial II System: One in which system usage is free,
but a registration or initiation fee is charged.
- Freehold System: One in which there are no charges to the
user either to access or use the system.
2) If commercial membership categories are created, what (if
anything) should NPTN be doing to support those activities? (Some
potential examples: lining-up commercial products at good rates
for re-sale on the affiliate systems; providing financial services
such a VISA/MasterCard clearence, or other activities which offer
economies of scale.)
3) If Freehold Systems are operating, what (if anything)
should NPTN be doing to support those systems? (Some potential
examples: conducting workshops on grantsmanship and other means of
raising monies from the community, pursuing sponsorships of
features from major companies which would run on the Freeholds,
pursuing networkwide foundation or corporate grants to provide
services, equipment, or operating monies to the Freehold systems,
etc.)
4) Should NPTN seek payments or royalties from non-NPTN
commercial systems who send their users to our systems? (Said
monies to go into a fund from which the Affiliate Council can
create our own internal grants program.)
5) What is the economic model which allows NPTN to stay alive
in order to DO all this?
6) What is the DOWNSIDE of commercializing the Free-Net's in
terms of: a) increased user demands and expectations for
"commercial quality" system performance; b) will the *volunteer*
sysops continue to be volunteers if they think (rightly or
wrongly) that someone is getting "rich" off of their work; and c)
in most cases can enough revenues be brought in to overcome
problems a) and b), AND the cost and hassle of the accounting and
billing involved, AND still yield enough monies to make it
worthwhile.
III NPTN AND POLITICAL ACTION
THE GENERAL QUESTION: Should NPTN take an active stance in the
development of federal. state, and/or local legislation or
regulation to promote the development of community computing?
1) Should NPTN develop a piece of Federal legislation which
would specifically target permanent nationwide core funding for
the development and operation of community computer systems--and
promote that legislation through all available federal-level
political channels?
2) Should NPTN develop a piece of model State legislation
which would specifically target permanent core funding for th
development and operation of community computer systems within
each state--and which could be promoted through all available
state-level political channels?
3) Should NPTN form statewide committees to promote the
development of community computer funding via the activities of
statewide Public Utilities Commissions and other similar agencies?
4) Should NPTN devise a special program which will make local
communities aware of and engage them in the need for the
development of information age structures and services in their
localities?
5) What mechanisms would need to be created to accomplish each
of the above? How would they be created? How would they be
funded? How would they be controlled?
IV INTRA-NETWORK RELATIONS AND QUALITY CONTROL
THE GENERAL QUESTION: What responsibility do we bear for
keeping our own house in order--to do the things necessary to
increase the online quality of ALL of our systems, thus increasing
the reputation of the network as a whole, thus benefitting
everyone--especially when it comes to grantsmanship.
SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS *MIGHT* INCLUDE:
1) Should we have minimal standards for the acceptance of
groups as organizing committees. If so, what ?
2) Once a system goes online, should there be minimal standards
with regard to the operation of an affiliate (e.g. "look and feel"
issues, minimal menu categories, standardized menu structures,
provision of certain minimal services, etc.)? If so, what should
they be? How would those standards be enforced?
3) Should there be requirements for resource sharing (e.g.
information features, organizational and operational documents,
etc.) over and above the "Plan B: NPTN Information Cooperative"
option in the affiliate agreement.
4) Should NPTN undertake to raise the monies necessary to
create a "state-of-the art" software product for community
computers to run on? If so, should we then, as an organization,
standardize on that software product?
5) Should NPTN allow community systems which are NOT affiliates
of NPTN to pass their users on to us via their teleports? Is that
fair to our systems and to the organization as a whole?"
-------------------------------------
Several listservs had comments on the question of "public" - i.e.
government support for civic networks.
--------------------------------------
CANADIAN FREENET LISTSERV
There was some discussion of the impact of the clipper chip
proposals on Canada. A number of issues were raised about control
over the keys for canadian users. Also the need for canadian
manufacturers to participate in the production of clipper compliant
hardware was raised.
COM-PRIV
Posters had a rambling discussion on the role of government in the
production and marketing of information on the Internet. Strong
positions for and against were taken. The majority of opinion fall
into the " some is inevitable" category. Competition with the
Private Sector was frowned upon by several posters and just as
vigorously defended by others.
A proposal for a government funded encyclopedia emergered and was
debated. [ apparently the participants are unaware of the Internet
Encyclopedia project which is ongoing now - participants view the
entire contents of the Internet as part of a vast encyclopedia -
they are just working of giving it a little more formal focus. ]
---------------------------------------------------------------
A great deal of material furthering the debate and reporting on the
Administration's action on the Clipper chip appeared throughout the
internet. I hope to do a short special issue later this week
summarizing the most interest posts.
EVENTS
======
Canada's Coalition for Public Information has now established its
listserv. To subscribe send a message to listproc@resudox.net
in the text area: subscribe co_pub_info Your Name
Send the word help for assistance.
The Coalition is rapidly gaining recognition as THE group
representing the broad public interest in Canada. In recent weeks
coalition spokespeople have been represented regularly in Canadian
Radio, TV and newspaper articles on the Global Information
Infrastructure.
The Coalition has adopted an ambitious agenda of Issues.
.1 Participate in public policy development in order to
advocate for universal, open, and affordable public access to the
evolving information infrastructure through such actions as
obtaining Coalition membership and involvement in CANARIE.
.2 Advocate for public rights to information.
.3 Advocate for and encourage a multiplicity of sources and
authorship on the information highway, with an emphasis on Canadian
culture, values and quality.
.4 Develop policy positions on regulatory issues, such as,
telecom and cable-TV rate structures.
.5 Develop the research capacity to produce public policy
positions.
.6 Survey and report on the institutional readiness of
public institutions, such as libraries and schools, as points of
access to the information highway for many Canadians.
.7 Support the work of community networks and FreeNets in
providing community access to the information highway.
.8 Work with the Cable-TV industry in expanding the
"Canadian Cable in the Classroom" program into libraries and other
public institutions that will provide access to the information
highway.
.9 Work with the telephone industry to develop strategies
to ensure equitable and economic access to the information highways
at the community level.
.10 To ensure that access to information for the public
good is part of the 500 channel universe
.11 Initiate a public dialogue on privacy issues on the
in order to develop a public policy position.
.12 Develop a position on intellectual property and
copyright for an electronic networked environment.
for more information Contact: Stan Skrzeszewski
<sskrzesz@julian.uwo.ca>
----------------------------
Paul Robinson <PAUL@TDR.COM> announced the creation of a list for
the public disclosure of bugs, system problems, viruses, and any
other conditions in a computer system that people should be aware
of so they can fix the problem.
"It is also appropriate to report security holes, dangerous
conditions in PBXs, cellular and wire telephone systems, and other
computer-controlled devices. Also reports of things such as
default accounts and passwords on systems that should be changed,
etc.
The focus will be on reporting clear descriptions of problems
including how to generate them. The idea being that this will
alert people to the nature of certain problems that they might be
unaware of. Reproducing these conditions lets others know what is
being done, and can allow people to post solutions on how to block
them.
The purpose in creating this list is that currently, the only
means currently available for reporting discovered security holes
in computer systems and possibly other areas is via the Computer
Emergency Research Team (CERT) out of Carnegie Mellon University.
The problem with CERT reporting is that the reports generally tend
to be done in secrecy, and it fails to let system administrators
and others know about what is happening so that these things can
be fixed. In short, CERT acts like a black hole and takes too long
to publicize problems until lots of places get hit because they
didn't know about it.
Some people feel that reports should not be publicized because
potential reports might become available to "the bad guys." Well,
the truth of the matter is that "the bad guys" trade their
discoveries around all the time; the current use of secrecy is only
hurting "the good guys" who want to protect their systems.
This list has just been created, and pending creation of an
automated processor will be temporarily moderated since my current
equipment does not yet tell me what address the message is sent to.
This will be changed not yet tell me what address the message is
sent to. This will be changed in the next two weeks.
There will, however, be two addresses. The general list will be
PROBLEMS@TDR.COM
which is used to post a report to the list. To subscribe to the
list, use PROBLEMS-REQUEST@TDR.COM
Currently, both addresses are moderated. This will change shortly
as I upgrade the software on my system. Persons wishing to make
a report but not be identified should state so in the text of their
message. In the future, they will do so by using the -request
address which will come to me directly."
FUNDRAISING
==============
WORKING WITH UNIVERSITIES OR COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Toronto Freenet is going to open on March 31st. It has developed
very good relations with all 3 local Universities. They are
donating listservs, computers, office space, meeting rooms, and
have been the source of many excellent volunteers. A recent
posting, by Laine Ruus, a founder of the freenet, and the Data
librarian at the University of Toronto; outlined the basis for that
relationship. From the perspective of the universities, working
with the freenet will result in several benefits.
Freenet:
- will provide access to important information resources
which currently are not accessible, such as municipal, and
provincial government resources, as well as commercial sector
resources, which are not currently available via the Internet
- will provide easy access to collections of other libraries in the
Toronto area, which are not currently available via the Internet
- will take some of the pressure off the UT Library's VAX
(and thus from the campus backbone) from individuals going through
the VAX to read their electronic mail at other sites (e.g. other
Free-nets)
- can provide a 'living-laboratory' for research in social
issues, social behaviour, linguistics, distance education, etc.
- can provide improved access and services to the disadvantaged
- can provide University of Toronto with a low-cost opportunity
to demonstrate their involvement and commitment in the local
community outside the academic community itself, thus
strengthening the town-and-gown relationship.
---------------------------------------------
REALLY IMAGINATIVE FUNDRAISING IDEA # 1
Toronto Mutual Fund companies are raising funds for the YMCA. 16
companies have each put up $100,000 of their own money. All
earnings are being donated to the Y, loses are absorbed by the
companies. Started last April, the contest has generated over 1/2
a million dollars for the Y todate. Not bad for a starting amount
of 1.6 million. The Y is getting about a 33% return on money it
doesnt have! The contest chair is the President of a major local
investment services company. He put the arm to his buddies. [ from
the Toronto Star]
-----------------------------------------------------------
REALLY IMAGINATIVE FUNDRAISING IDEA # 2
Michigan National Bank has added a new menu item to its 300 cash
machines: information on charities."By pressing a few buttons,
depositors are able to transfer contributions directly from their
accounts to one or more of 20 charities around the state. The
machine provides a receipt for tax records." The story [ in the New
York times ] says the bank asked its officers "to recommend
charities that seemed especially worthy of contributions."
"Ariadne Magoulias, a spokeswoman for Michigan National, said the
idea for teller-machine giving came from a bank employee who
learned about a similar program offered by the tiny Fayette County
Bank in Georgia. The employee proposed the idea, she said, 'and
our management thought it had merit.'" [PUTNAM BARBER]
REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE
========================
PBS PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY & LEARNING.
The Merrow Report, the PBS series that covers education in America,
is looking for the best examples of effective use of technology
both inside and outside the classroom. Send ideas and suggestions
to report@aol.com. [EDUCOM ]
----------------------------------------------------------
GOVERNMENT ON-LINE
Max Lent : <72145.125@compuserve.com> is looking for information
on community based on-line services having contact with government.
" The reason that I am looking for this data is that I'm compiling
a book entitled "Government On-line." The book is an
annotated directory of public access government on-line services
covering national, state, county, and community on-line services.
Any information you can share with me would be greatly appreciated.
I'm especially interested in state, county, city, or community
governments offering on-line services directly or indirectly. I'm
also looking for foreign versions of the same info.
--------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE - SIMILAR TO THE NII.
The Australian Govt. is calling for submissions from interested
groups to provide them with a discussion paper, and backbone of a
marketing plan. [ sorry I don't have a contact address - ed ]
TOOLS
======
"A PROGRAM TO ASSIST HTTP BROWSING OF NEWSGROUPS
WWW browsers such as NCSA Mosaic allow the user to read
newsgroup articles by specifying the group name in a URL eg
'news:comp.answers'.
To browse through many groups, though, (and there are several
thousand of them) you really need a page or pages containing links
to all the groups.
Newslist is a program which creates a hierarchy of pages for
you based on the groups available from YOUR server. It is written
in Python - a splendid interpreted object-oriented language which
I suggest you get right now from the directory /pub/python at
ftp.cwi.nl, if you haven't already got it.
A suitable list detailing most groups can be found at
ftp.uu.net in /uunet-info/newsgroups.gz.
In addition to Python, you need:
An NNTP-based news feed.
A directory in which to put the pages.
This is an early version. The programming is not very beautiful,
but it works! It comes with no warranty, express or implied, but
with the hope that some others may find it useful. Comments,
improvements & suggestions welcomed.
[Quentin Stafford-Fraser : fraser@hare.europarc.xerox.com ]
--------------------------------------------------------------
A PROGRAM THAT ALMOST SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
[ Last weeks discussions on mail readers for FREEPORT software
prompted me to put this commercial announcement in ]
"Now you can reach your favorite Internet services using Windows.
All you need is Cyberdesk and a dial-up UNIX shell account --- the
least expensive account available --- to get powerful access to
Internet at minimum cost. You can use the Internet service provider
you like and connect through any standard UNIX shell. Cyberdesk,
a new kind of communications software, eliminates the need for you
to learn the complexities of UNIX to access and manage the
Internet. Cyberdesk automatically issues the appropriate commands
for you to exchange your private e-mail, participate in public
newsgroups, ftp files to your local PC, and telnet to systems
around the world. You read and respond to messages offline in
Cyberdesk's highly graphical Windows environment.
Cyberdesk routinely checks each system for new private e-mail and
public messages in CompuServe's forums and USENET's newsgroups.
All the messages from these various systems appear in one mailbox
on your Cyberdesk. Cyberdesk also includes a gateway to your LAN
e-mail post offices; a spelling checker with a 90,000+ word
dictionary, named file folders including subfolders, over 30
address templates, binary attachments, automatic cross platform
addressing, distribution lists, support for external encryption,
file transfer protocols, terminal emulations, a sophisticated
C-like script language, and extensive options for customization to
your personal preferences.
Details on Cyberdesk are in the file cdbro.exe, available via ftp
on netcom.com in pub/cyber,
Run cdbro.exe on your system to produce the brochure in
Windows Help format. Or we'll be happy to fax it if you'll e-mail
us your fax number. CyberCorp, Inc. Internet: cyber@netcom.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
A FREE MULTI-PROTOCOL SERVER FOR GOPHER AND HTTP
GN Release 2.0
[ This tool allows sites to serve people with either sophisticated
(graphical) and primitive (vt100 ascii) access to the net.]
FEATURES:
o GN serves two protocols gopher0 and HTTP/1.0,
the protocol used by WWW clients. GN recognizes the protocol
from the request and responds appropriately. This allows the
use of WWW browsers like Mosaic in their native mode.
o Over 60K of documentation.
o Eases migration from gopher to WWW
o Support for WAIS index searches.
Free for any use, commercial or otherwise! (GNU license)
AVAILABLE BY ANONYMOUS FTP:
FTP to: ftp.acns.nwu.edu
Get file pub/gn/gn-2.0.tar.Z
OR VIA GOPHER:
Server: hopf.math.nwu.edu port 70
Get file: gn-2.0.tar.Z
Gn is a gopher/HTTP server which is written in C and runs under
UNIX. It is freely available for any use, commercial or otherwise.
The software is freely redistributable under the terms of the GNU
public license. There is good documentation -- three man pages and
an extensive installation and maintenance guide.
you don't need to run different servers on different ports to have
different levels of access!
the GN gopher/http protocol server has support for WAIS index
searches. This means you can index a collection of files with the
index software designed for use with WAIS (Wide Area Information
Server) and the gn server will respond to user queries by providing
a menu of those documents from your collection which contain a
match for the user supplied search term. Simple boolean
combinations like `horses and cows' or `fox not goose' are
supported.
TRENDS
=======
THE NET & THE LEGAL SYSTEM are starting to reshape each other.
This is a process that will accelerate rapidly. The clipper chip
proposal is a major example; but two items from the Educom Review
this week show that more surprises are in store.
LAWSUIT CHALLENGES ACCREDITATION STANDARDS. The Massachusetts
School of Law has filed suit against the American Bar Association,
challenging some of the standards imposed on law schools, such as
the number of books housed in their libraries. The School makes use
of electronic databases and interlibrary loans in lieu of
"expensive hard-cover volumes of statues and court decisions that
the ABA wants to see on our library shelve.
SEX TITLES DRIVEN OFF INFO HIGHWAY. Canada's best-known computer
science school, the University of Waterloo, banned from its campus
five Internet BBSs dealing with violent sex and other areas out of
concern that the contents contravene laws on pornography and
obscenity. A university spokesperson says that while Waterloo
tries to protect freedom of expression as much as possible, it must
draw the line when it goes beyond the bounds of the law.
-------------------------------------------------------
THE COST OF NET ACCESS CONTINUES TO DECLINE
The cost of access to really powerful network service just declined
by at least 95%. Last year if you wanted ATM service to your home
machine you needed to spend $2,000. for a card. As the following
announcement indicates; the price should soon be under $100 for
similar power this year. While the price of ATM "access" from the
phone companies is still very high - it too should decline steeply
this year. [ ATM is about 20,000 times faster than what you get
with a 14.4 modem.]
ATM OVER COPPER. Micro Linear Corp. has developed a cheap ($20)
chip that enables copper wire to carry ATM (asynchronous transfer
mode) signals. Normally, ATM signals are too fast for copper to
handle, and "noise" results from the metal's resistance to the
tightly packed signal. The chip adjusts an equalization circuit
that filters out the noise and restores the signal to its original
clarity. [ EDUCOM ]
-----------------------------------------
COMMERCIAL CIVIC NETWORKS and other varients are becoming more and
more common. For several months reports of commercial access
systems with strong public information components have been
circulated on the Internet. NPTN is debating its position on these
hybrids now. The idea of a "self funded" - members pay - freenet
has even been discussed on the NPTN listserv.
In recent weeks 4 varients on the theme of civic nets were
announced.
1 - PALO ALTO WEEKLY GOES ON-LINE ON THE INTERNET
For more information contact: paweekly@netcom.com
This newspaper has decided to go on line with a twist.
"The Palo Alto Weekly has been testing its Internet "presence" for
the last month, and over 2,000 different Internet computer systems
have accessed it, even though no public announcement had been made
about its availability.
In addition to the contents of each issue, which includes news,
entertainment listings, movie and restaurant reviews, open house
listings and real estate transactions, the text of past issues will
be available.....Readers may also communicate with the newspaper
and send letters to the editor.
Under development are community-oriented "news groups," which will
permit readers to post messages and opinions about community issues
and allow local organizations to make information available
electronically.
The Palo Alto Weekly is on World Wide Web, with a URL address of
http://www.service.com/PAW/home.html.
---------------------------------------
2. SV-PAL OFFERS INTERNET ACCESS FOR $20 PER *YEAR*!!
All the talk and promotion for the information highway has
companies and investment groups scrambling to determine their
part in this new age for communications. Much of the attention is
focused on how the network will be organized, architected and
constructed. But more important is who will it serve, what is its
benefits and how can it be used. Answers to these issues are more
likely to come from the efforts of groups like SV-PAL, the Silicon
Valley - Public Access Link, when it opens its doors in late
February.
SV-PAL is committed to increasing the numbers of people in
Silicon Valley that access and benefit from on-line information.
SV-PAL's three fold objectives:
o Provide broader on-line access to local information,
o Provide on-line access to global information through the
Internet and
o Educate people about on-line resources,
goes to the heart of determining the purposes and values for the
coming age of communications. Because SV-PAL is so committed to
expanding the access to on-line information beyond the present base
of users, a comprehensive menuing interface was developed to
simplify the user interface. One of its most amazing attributes
is how the resources of the Internet are made available without
technical education on UNIX shell commands for users.
Preparation for SV-PAL's general roll out at the end of
February has been progressing for about a year. Over 100 users
have been in a Beta Test since October of 1993. By March SV-
PAL plans to make available to individuals and households full
local information and Internet access for a twenty dollar annual
fee. Special arrangements for independent accounts for minors
will also be available. There are no time based usage charges
although individual sessions will be limited to one hour of connect
time in order to provide equity of access.
Local information will include items like city council
agendas, schedules for cultural attractions, schedules for youth
activities and sports programs as well as information of a more
commercial nature. Later, SV-PAL expects to offer a geographical
data base that allows for graphically locating events, specific
activity routes and any other graphical information.
Global information is provided through access to the
Internet:
o Electronic Mail to the 20+ million Internet subscribers around
the world,
o Telnet connections to remote hosts,
o FTP, WWW and Gopher access to remote data bases,
o News net access to the thousands of news topics carried on the
Internet.
Even though its doors are not yet officially open, SV-PAL
became instrumental to at least one part of the world's largest
information resource (the Internet) when it offered the first
Gopher service to the new California Legislative Data Base in
January just days after the data became available to the Internet.
In its first week of existence almost 1000 inquiries were made
through this Gopher. Most of these were from people at other
Internet hosts pointing their Gophers at SV-PAL's Gopher for the
information. SV-PAL plans to locate public access
terminals with some limitations on the functions provided at
various public locations around the south bay. At one of these
terminals people can experience accessing data remotely as well as
getting information about what is happening in the Silicon Valley.
Although inspired by the success of freenets, SV-PAL is a
significantly new type of on-line experiment. SV-PAL is designed
to be self sustaining. Other freenets have been spectacularly
successful. But, typically they depend upon a large institutional
or corporate sponsor. SV-PAL is planned to be self sustaining.
Chartered as a 501(c)(3) non profit corporation ...... The
volunteer staff of over 30 people come from Silicon Valley's most
respected companies. For additional info contact
<selmeier@svpal.org> --Bill Selmeier
-------------------------------------
3. PUBLIC LIBRARY OFFERS 80 TERMINALS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET
Here 60 miles north of San Francisco, our Santa Rosa Public
library announced free public access to the internet starting in
March, the only one in the state of CA. This has been brought
about through a State Grant and is in concert with our State
University System. Not only will there be 80 terminals
located throught our public library system, there will be eight
dialup lines for people to connect from home or business.
Patrick Laherty <plahert@ctp.org >
--------------------------------------
4. THE LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY AND INFORMATION NETWORK (LACIN) is
planning to use INFO LINE, the Information and Referral Federation
of L.A. County, as its basis. Info Line was recently converted
from print to a CD ROM database designed for professional Human
Service use. Now we will add a simplified overlay for public access
via modem. Info Line developed a taxonomy of human services that
has become the national standard. It has over a thousand search
words and new ones are regularly added.
You can write for more information to:
Genevieve Marcus <gmarcus@igc.org>
----------------------------------------
In addition the first " Inner City " training center for GII based
jobs training opened in the South Bronx on Valentines Day.
WILLOW OPPORTUNITY CENTER
WILLOW WILL OFFER NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN THE INTERACTIVE AGE USING
THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAYS AND FOCUS ON INNER CITY EDUCATION AND
ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
For more information Point your WWW client to
HTTP://Shebute.com/Projects/Willow/Willow.HTML
_______________________________________________________________
==============================================
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