220 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
220 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
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NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY
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Date : December 19, 1993
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compiler : Sam Sternberg samsam@vm1.yorku.ca
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This is the 3rd weekly issue. Coverage includes:
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DISCUSSIONS FUNDING
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NEW SERVICES TRENDS
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DISCUSSIONS
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On the Freenet-admin listserv; [ FREENET-ADMIN@NPTN.ORG ] intense and
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occasionally angry discussion of the relationship between commercial
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access providers and freenets became focused on the issue of funding.
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Some felt that the free in freenet had to go; others argued strongly
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that it must remain. The upshot was a call for an immediate conference
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to be held in January. All freenet administrators and organizers were
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asked to attend. The focus will be on developing policy on funding,
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lobbying, and other survival issues.
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NPTN also revealed that it hired the attorney at Electronic Frontier
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Foundation to investigate liability issues. It is seeking to obtain
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liability insurance for freenets. This would provide protection against
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the legal repercussions from the presence on a member net of illegal
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materials.
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-----------------------------------
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Communet's discussion of non profit issues led to the creation of a
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new listserv for non profits. Details will be presented as soon as they
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are made public. It should be operating with a few weeks. There has
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also been talk of the need for a coop to purchase access at reduced
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rates. The Annenberg gift for education was also discussed. [ Interestingly,
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the White House announcement contained not a word on the funding for
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electronic libraries aspects of the gift ].
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------------------------------------
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The Canadian freenet listserv provided calls for intensified efforts
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to educate government officials about freenets. Some current activities
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of federal officials were described as self serving. Several commercial
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access providers actively discussed their feelings and perspective.
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I felt the discussion was too negative about the commercial sector;
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and 1 announced an equipment donation to the Ottawa freenet. The same
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company announced several types of commercial service, including a $17.00
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/month + hourly charges enhanced freenet access service. $2.00/month
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will go to the Ottawa freenet. [ This fee level contrasts sharply with
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the unrestricted Internet access at $5.00/month and no added charges
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service in Colorado, and an only slightly more expensive service in
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Toronto ].
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----------------------------------------
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The freenet tech listserv had extensive traffic on both the need for
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and methods of implementing more appealing interfaces.
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----------------------------------------
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An article from Britain describing the legal plight in the U.S. of the
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creator of PGP [ public domain encryption software ] and appealing for
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contributions to his defense fund was posted to the Cypherwonks listserv.
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FUNDING
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Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., the chairman of the House telecommunications
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subcommittee, hopes that the Telecom industries will not oppose efforts
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to provide Internet connects to all schools. He has sent letters to
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many industry leaders alerting them to the importance of networks to
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the future of American education and economic competitiveness. He said
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that``historically (education has) been a leader for
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economic mobility for people of all social and economic backgrounds.
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We must make sure that in the information age, every school has the
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technology it needs to provide students with the skills necessary to
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participate in a knowledge-based economy.''
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This follows on the heels of last week's call by the Chairman of the
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FCC for similar action.
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While we wait for the result the on-line version of the Catalog of Federal
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Domestic Assistance should be useful to any seeking funding for a community
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net. This is a directory of Federal
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programs, projects, service and activities which provide assistance
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or benefits to the American Public. It contains financial and nonfinancial
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assistance programs administered by departments and establishments of
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the Federal government.
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A floppy diskette version of the Catalog of Federal Domestic
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Assistance on ASCII text may be purchased from GSA by calling (202)
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708-5126.
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Unlike the equivalent documents in other countries, this is also available
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on line. My search revealed 75 programs containing reference to communities
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and or communications.
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gopher to -> cwis.usc.edu -> LIBRARY & RESEARCH -> research information
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-> government information -> CFDA
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OR use veronica to search for "domestic assistance" [ this may be faster
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].
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Steve Cisler let it be known that the NTIA, part of the Dept. of Commerce,
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will have about $20+ million for grants for schools, libraries, and
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community systems during fiscal 94. NTIA is holding hearings and Cisler
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urges us to participate. He said that " you can expect to see an RFP
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for the NTIA grants in January. Then there will be a deadline, review
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time, and announcement of grants. He can be contacted at the Apple Library
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of Tomorrow
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sac@apple.com .
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NEW SERVICES
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THE RURAL DATAFICATION PROJECT, funded by a $1.3 million NSF grant aims
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"to bring the power of the Internet to people in traditionally difficult-to-rea
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c
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h and difficult to serve areas," The project represents a joint effort
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by eight mid-western states and the North Central Regional Educational
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Laboratory (NCREL) whose charter it is to promote educational excellence
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in rural schools. Contact Rhana Jacot, E-mail: rjacot@cic.net for more
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information.
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--------------------------------------------
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The Clearinghouse for Subject-Oriented Internet Resource Guides has
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released a group of new guides, of particular interest is
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US Technology Public Policy by Steve Kirk David Blair.
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My guide to community network information is also avialable there. There
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are currently over 60 guides available via
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anonymous FTP, Gopher, and WorldWideWeb/Mosaic.
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For access use :
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anonymous FTP: host: una.hh.lib.umich.edu
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path: /inetdirsstacks
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Gopher: gopher.lib.umich.edu
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--> What's New and Featured Resources -->Clearinghouse...
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TRENDS
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As Stever Cisler's posting to several listserves pointed out; the trend
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is to Coalitions. The commercial sector is leading the way. Two reports
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posted this week on recent conferences about community networks also
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reiterated this theme.
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On the commercial side, Bellcore announced a new coalition to develop
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prototype projects to make it practical for consumers to use the ``information
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superhighway''. Already involved are a very mixed group of corporations
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including some traditional rivals. These include Capital Cities/ABC,
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Inc. and ABC News; Digital Equipment Corp.; Hewlett-Packard Co.; JCPenney;
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Los Alamos National Laboratory; The Media Lab at MIT; Microware Systems
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Corp.; Northern Telecom and WilTel and of course the Baby Bells -- Ameritech,
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Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Nynex, Pacific
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Telesis, Southwestern Bell and U S West.
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The conference reports both show a growing recognition that all the
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efforts to network the public have to be unified in their approaches
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to funding; and to bringing together a coalition of potential beneficiaries.
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The conference on educational networks in Toronto last Monday, heard
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the head of the Canadian Schoolnet project say that freenets were the
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key to bringing schools onto the Internet.
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Echoing a similar theme, Clyde Bion Forrest [ ud793@freenet.victoria.bc.ca
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] pointed out in his massive report on a recent west coast conference;
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that " Stentor [ the canadian coalition of telcos ] claims that there
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is not enough time for open public discussion to reach consensus on
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how to best implement Canada's electronic super highway services. However,
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the corporate/government world has an abysmal track record on public
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computer network services -- i.e. "Telidon" and "Alex" -- because they
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have focussed too much on charging for access to information." He goes
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on to note the need for " the volunteer efforts of a growing number
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of concerned Internet-enabled Canadian citizens", we are rapidly reaching
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the critical
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mass required to successfully implement the fundamental policies and
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services for equitable electronic public discourse, nation-wide"...."
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on how we can continue to move ahead at the provincial, federal, and
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global levels."
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Much of the discussion about a purchasing coop for public nets also
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dealt with the advantages of communities working together for improved
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economics.
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----------------------------------------
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In the mean time the growth of the internet shows no signs of slowing.
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John Quartermain [ in his most recent matrix report ] now estimates
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that, with the completion of Internet access arrangements by the all
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of the on-line services like compuserve, there are 35 million person
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with at least e-mail access. He also estimates a similar number of people
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are on existing nets which are smaller, largely private, and have yet
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to be connected to the Internet.
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----------------------------------------
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While the trend toward no-fee access to government data looks strong
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in the U.S.; disturbing signs of a continuing fee oriented government
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mentality are showing in Canada.
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The Ministry of Northern Development and Mines in Ontario has launched
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a computerized mining library system to help
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prospectors in the province. The Earth Resources and Land Information
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System (ERLIS) makes available some 120,000 maps as well as mining databases
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and 1.5 million pages of documents related to mining. There will be
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fees for using the system, which the ministry is expected to set early
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in 1994. There are also no plans to make the data Internet accessible.
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.
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