239 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
239 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
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NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY
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Date : December 6, 1993
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compiler : Sam Sternberg samsam@vm1.yorku.ca
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The first report of this weekly survey will be longer than
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most future issues. Contact information for most of the
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material or sites for archival review are attached at the end.
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Coverage includes:
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LEGISLATION
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FUNDING
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DISCUSSIONS
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NEW SERVICES
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TRENDS
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LEGISLATION
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A flurry of legislative activity is under way In the U.S.
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which will effect the public's electronic access to government
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information. Copyright Law has already been impacted. Many
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pieces of proposed legislation require implementation of these
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new access tools and procedures by year end.
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The Canadian government still has it head in the sand on these
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issues.
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The trends are toward unrestricted electronic access to all
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federal documents. Included are efforts to require major
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improvement in the document location process.
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One unfortunate part of this trend is that the major
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distributors of information, like the National Technical
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Information Service, which were mandated to charge for their
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services in the era of expensive paper document delivery; are
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still subject to those requirements for electronic documents.
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While all Federal materials may be accessible, substantial
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portions may end up costing money to acquire. Especially if
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they are not covered by the Depository library act or if
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potential users go directly to the Federal Government instead
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of to a depository institution for copies.
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Special initiatives covering the process of doing business
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with the Federal Government already include calls for
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guarantees of access by small business and minority owned
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firms.
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Proposed legislation should help libraries control costs by
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allowing them to use electronic forms of documents.
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A Federal initiative to tie together all state Health
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Departments Nationwide has been announced by the Center for
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Disease Control.
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FUNDING
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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is seeking proposal
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from community groups who affiliate with local public
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broadcasters to offer new network based education services.
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Substantial funding -[in the context of the very limited
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amounts often available for network projects] is being
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offered.
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For further information, contact Michael J. Strait
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(202-879-9649) or
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Kim Smith (202-879-9657). Fax: 202-783-1036 Electronic mail:
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cweis@cap.gwu.edu
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Please address written correspondence to: CWEIS Initiative,
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c/o
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Michael J. Strait, The Annenberg/CPB Projects Corporation for
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Public Broadcasting, 901 E Street, NW, Washington, DC
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20004-2037
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This effort is part of a growing trend by institutions to
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stake out "ownership" of a segment of net based activities.
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"Ownership" will hopefully result in future government
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funding.
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CPB assumes that the future of the net includes DELIVERY of
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video etc. and it needs to get its foot in the door early.
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At a recent Public Broadcasting Service-sponsored
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telecommunications conference reps repeated oft heard
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complaints about lack of access for rural and minority groups
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and then got to the crux of the matter - The lack of federal
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government action to establish educational 'set asides.'
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DISCUSSIONS
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Two major new discussions of public access and networking
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issues heated up this week.
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FIRST - COMMERCIAL USE OF FREE SYSTEMS
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Free-Net administrators began an intense and interesting
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discussion on the relations between their sites and those of
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commercial providers. These discussions focused on the
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classical "free rider" problem. Should free internet sites be
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accessed directly from the menus of "pay per use" systems like
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Delphi.
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Free-nets are being squeezed by the rising cost of serving
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incoming traffic from the nets and their own lack of success
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in fundraising to support expanded services. The demand for
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freenet services is exploding.
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Among the consequences are the recent decision by Youngstown
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Free-Net to terminate new accounts on their system. This makes
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them " the first Free-Net to consider shutting down due to
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success. " Their problem? " Without another machine, we can
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no longer provide "free" services."
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They are attempting a gopher version of the system so that
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unregistered users can see most of it the lower resource
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impacting gopher process, but they don't expect that will
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solve the problem. Money clearly is needed.
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On the other hand the success of the Ottawa system in building
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user traffic - 11,000 new users in 11 months! - has lead two
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new commercial providers to set up in Ottawa. There strategy
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is parasitic on the Ottawa success. They plan to use the
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demand generated by the free-net to offer better internet
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access to those willing to pay. At the same the free-net
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itself is having little success raising funds and it too may
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be driven to cutting off its own growth.
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SECOND - ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY
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A new list with the unappealing name of CYPHERWONKS, has been
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home to an excellent discussion of both philosophical and
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technical issues that will affect future efforts at broadening
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democratic institutions through the use of public networks.
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The new listserv has also inadvertently demonstrated a major
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weakness of current system as carriers of democratic dialogue.
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A vicious flame war against on of the discussants has been
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transferred to this list from it prior locals on several other
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lists.
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NEW SERVICES
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Peter Scot OF HYTELNET reports the new Assistive Technology
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Database -
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TELNET BONGO.CC.UTEXAS.EDU or 128.83.186.13
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login: tatp
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ATP maintains ATDI as a public database which aids consumers
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in locating disability assistive equipment and services. ATDI
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is meant to help create a list of vendors in a certain region
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who provide certain services.
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-----------------------------
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The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)
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released the report, "Making Government Work: Electronic
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Delivery of Federal Services" [OTA-TCT-578, Sept. 1993]. It
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urged the Clinton Administration to adopt an overall strategy
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or vision for the electronic delivery of government services.
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The report is available in its entirety from the gopher site
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at CYPHER.ESUSDA.GOV
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-> Americans Communicating Electronicly ->OTA
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The first chapter is excellent as a summary and a guide to
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prior publications in the area of electronic government.
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This is well worth getting.
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TRENDS
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In Canada, Stentor - the alliance of old line phone
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companies - released a "vision" document saying almost all the
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right things; but it pointed neglected any mention of public
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access systems. Their only indirect reference was a request
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that there be no subsidizing of networks. The lack of phone
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company enthusiasm for competition from real public access
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systems is palpable. They are hoping to be permitted to enter
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the service business and they don't want anyone giving away
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bandwidth to potential customers.
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------------------------------------------------------------
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In the U.S., a group in New York is trying to encourage non
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profit organizations to sponsor a "pay per use" service to
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provide them with access to State of New York information.
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At a proposed price of $27.00 per hour of access time, I
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suspect that this effort to commercialize access to publicly
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funded public information will die a quick death at the hands
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of its own greed.
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-----------------------------------------------------------
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"Internet in a Box," software and telephone carrier service
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has been announced. It will come from a small company
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cooperating with Sprint. It promises to let users connect
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directly to the Internet, and it should have a major impact on
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Internet access and traffic across north america. Sprint has
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already committed to providing high speed internet service to
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all comers starting in March. The new connects are direct. You
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don't need an "access provider."
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The impact of this on the network's free services are
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worrisome according to some commentators. One person suggested
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that the result would be overburdening free services and a
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consequent demise of those services- see above about the
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freenet which is dying from its own success . Without better
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funding for public access systems, that just might be the
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case.
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An " Electronic Bill of Rights" called the Bill of Rights and
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Responsibilities for Electronic Learners, an initiative of the
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American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) has been
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proposed.
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This rehash of the american founding document would be of
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little interest if it wasn't yet another example of folks try
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to own the network and simultaneously guarantee themselves a
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piece of all future funding.
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After a brief delineation of the rights of you and I, it
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quickly proceeds to try and establish similar rights for our
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benefactors in the educational institutions. It virtually
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mandates that their right to network access be funded too!
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Everyone needs funding to create their vision of the future
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net but this really needs to be dealt with in less self
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interested ways. A great deal of additional legislative
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attention has to be given to these issues.
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