382 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
382 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
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NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY : January 3, 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 first report of 1994 is the 6th weekly survey.
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Coverage includes:
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LEGISLATION DISCUSSIONS NEW SERVICES
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FUNDING RECENT REPORTS & TRENDS
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LEGISLATION
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An excellent summary of pending legislation effecting communets
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is available in the latest issue of the American Library Assoc.
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e-newsletter - ala-won. To subscribe send mail to :
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listserv@uicvm.uic.edu -> subscribe ala-wo [your name here]
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Along with your subscription acknowledgement will come info on
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using the archives to retrieve items like the current issue.
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DISCUSSIONS
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The NPTN list was very busy this week. The prime focus was on
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delaying the restructuring conference till summer and using the
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remaining time to develop issues on single topic listservs.
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Norman Kurland posted a draft funding document that generated
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interest. He proposed a support approach involving a mix of free
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and paid services. nkurland@albanyvms.bitnet
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Fee-nets were temporarily granted permission to charge for
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services but warned that doing so was dangerous for several
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reasons - including the possibility of losing charitable status.
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The Office of Technology Assessment hired NPTN to conduct a
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multisite discussion on using electronic technology for
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delivering Social Security services. This distributed research
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project is a first of its kind. It is to be completed by the end
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of January. The result will be worked into a report from OTA.
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The Cypherwonks list has essentially died at the hand of one of
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its founders and his numerous detractors. Several prior
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participants are trying to find a moderated forum on which to
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continue the very fruitful discussion which took place during the
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early days of the list's operation.
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COMMUNET developed an active discussion on the potential role of
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Cable systems in delivering community network services.
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The ignorance of Local governments - responsible for regulating
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the cable providers - was decried. Some members are actively
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trying to educate their municipalities and get them to reguire
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community access to the internet as a licensing feature.
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Additional comments on the danger to the "character" of the
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Internet from commercialization were made. This included several
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impassioned pleas for activism on the part of the readers.
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FUNDING
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A fee based - online - fundraising workshop is being offered. I
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would love to see a similar workshop offered for free; but this
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price is in line with fees for conventional workshops on funding.
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It begins Feb. 1, 1994. The workshop fee is $100.00 per
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participant. Post-workshop personalized consultations (by e-mail
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or other means) are available at $100 per hour.
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Registration:
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To register, send a check for $100 "per participant ***"
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payable to Internet Works, Inc. to:
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Internet Works, Inc.
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Proposal Planning & Writing Workshop
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9988 Whitewater Drive
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Burke, VA 22015
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[ *** on the Internet no one knows your a participant - pricing
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information and services is a problem on the net - so the honour
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system prevails - sam ]
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Include the usual information needed for them to know how to e-
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mail the lessons to you and mail you other pertinent info.
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RECENT REPORTS
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A very important proposal for improving the flow of e-mail on the
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Internet has been posted to the gopher at :
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cyfer.esusda.gov -> American Communicating Electronicly ACE
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--> M.U.S.E. Report
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The report is very verbose but its worth reading. It argues that
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the U.S. federal government must develop uniform e-mail standards
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and its goes to great lengths to explain the economic and other
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benefits of doing so. Its most exciting feature is a detailed
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discussion of the types of "address books" that should be
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provided.
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"One might think of the M.U.S.E. as an electronic cloud
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into which anyone outside the Federal Government could
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send a piece of e-mail, and have it delivered to any
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Federal Government addressee regardless where that
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addressee might be located. Unlike the USPS which is a
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single mail cloud for everyone in the Nation, the M.U.S.E.
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would be a single cloud for the whole Federal Government
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only. Everyone outside the Federal Government must fend
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for themselves as best they can. That's where all those
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private sector, state and local mail systems get their
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chance for a piece of the action. When it comes to mail
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between their customers and Federal Government parties,
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those other systems just dump it into the cloud and
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collect it from the cloud".
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The proposal is based on 5 principles.
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1. A single functional agency interface (for enveloping,
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transport and directory services) to everyone outside
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the agency.
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2. No multi-agency, multi-interface burden on the
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private sector or on state and local governments.
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3. A standard interface and discipline for
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interoperation with any non-Federal network, such
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that all private sector, state and local networks can
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provide an accommodation for their respective users
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or customers.
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If there were a national e-mail system, Federal Government
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parties could be expected to accommodate to it rather than
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vice versa. However, the reality is that there are
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potentially hundreds of unique e-mail systems outside the
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government which will want to offer government
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interoperation to their customers and users.
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4. A directory arrangement that will support use by
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everyone outside the Federal Government, to support
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their dealings with the whole government;
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specifically, to find services, to find information,
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and to conduct business, regardless of which agency
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may be involved.
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5. A solid foundation to support the regulatory needs of
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agencies and the needs and tests of the Federal
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Courts, for the conduct of Federal Government
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business and delivery of Federal Government services.
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Once again using the postal system as analogy, there must
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be the equivalent of the postmark to determine, legally,
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when something was mailed; of the return receipt to
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establish legally that something was delivered and when it
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was delivered; of the dependability of transport; of the
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preservation of item integrity; and of the address to
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which something required can be sent easily by all
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respondents regardless where the respondents may be
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located."
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The report clearly points out the economic advantages of
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substituting electrons for paper. It is on this point that
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community network advocates should support the proposal and point
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out the important role communets can play in making the savings
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real.
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" The paperwork required under law has two results. First,
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benefits and services cannot ordinarily be delivered until
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the paperwork has been completed. Second, the processing
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of the paperwork creates a cost that is borne by the
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taxpayers. A certain percentage of the total cost of
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every government program is the collection and processing
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of necessary information. While this percentage is
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usually low (less than five percent), if it were to
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ggregated across the entire Federal Government, it would
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robably total in the hundreds of millions of dollars
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every year.
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To be sure, program administration involves more than just
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handling forms, reports, notices, and payments. Clerks
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and benefits specialists in Federal agency offices across
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the country explain programs and benefits, answer unusual
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questions, and assist citizens, organizations, and local
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governments in their interactions with the Federal
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Government. While this will always be needed, a portion
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can be shifted to electronics, as the use of sophisticated
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computer-based voice response systems, together with "800"
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number calling have demonstrated."
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The section dealing with "address location" proposes the
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following types of information sources.
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The M.U.S.E.'s White Pages design is for the benefit of
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citizen and organization communication with elected and
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appointed officials, and the facilitation of e-mail across
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agency lines within the government.
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The Blue Pages design is for the removal of barriers to Federal
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Government services; to make the government less confusing and
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impenetrable to the Nation, and to speed the delivery of
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services by shortening the time to connect a citizen to an
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appropriate servicer.
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The Yellow Pages design is the mother lode in the gold
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mine, not only for individual agencies and individual non-
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Federal parties, but for the Nation as a whole. More hard
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dollar benefits may be associated with the Yellow Pages
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than with any other single feature of the M.U.S.E. While
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the Yellow Pages may be the most cost-beneficial part of
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the directory, its sophistication makes it the hardest to
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appreciate.
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In a nutshell, what the Yellow Pages do is facilitate not
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only the Federal Government's business with parties
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outside the government, but also those parties' business
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oportunities with the Federal Government. "Business" in
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this context is not just procurement, but any mission or
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program activity.
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Yellow Pages: Non-Procurement
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E-mail includes the concept of what is called
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"distribution list" addressing. A distribution list is a
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list of addressees which has a separate name for the
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entire list, taken as a whole. Someone who wishes to send
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the same message to everyone in the list need enter the
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message only once, addressed to the name of the list. The
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e-mail environment automatically sends the message to
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everyone in the list.
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The M.U.S.E. Yellow Pages let the Federal Government reap
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the full benefits of distribution list addressing by
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marrying it with the information-finding capabilities of
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the telephone Yellow Pages.
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"Green Pages" This name was coined to identify a functionality so
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closely related to the Blue Pages that it might almost be
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wedded to that part of the directory. Just as the Blue
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Pages help people find sources of Federal assistance, the
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Green Pages help people find sources of Federal
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information publications and holdings.
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[ this post is on an U.S. agricultural extension service gopher.
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This service has been particularly good about promoting lower
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cost and more effective government thru electronic means. - Rural
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communets should be working with their local extension offices
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and land grant colleges.]
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-------------------------------------------
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Another interesting report is the VALA conference report from
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Australia. The report is international in scope and the article
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quality is high. While it was aimed primarily at libraries; it
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includes several items about public information providers like
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communets. The conference took place 2 months ago.
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gopher -> gopher.latrobe.edu.au -> VALA
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It is encouraging to see conference reports available
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electronicly within weeks of an event. Prior to the Internet this
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"document" would have been available to very few non austrailians
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and then not for at least a year or two.
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NEW SERVICES
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2 interesting new gopher based services have appeared.
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The University of Missouri provides what it calls "enhanced
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subject areas". It is making use of its status as a federal
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depository library to provide the internet with many important
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government documents not previously available in electronic
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format. These include:
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Army area handbooks - this is an extraordinarily good series of
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books about foreign countries. Japan is the first
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available.
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State Department Background Notes
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Foriegn Trade Practices reports - which provide excellent
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information about doing business with specific countries.
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Occupational Outlook Annual Report - with details about types of
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work and future prospects for each type.
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There are several other new docs as well.
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[ I hope that Federal Depository libraries will get together and
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divide up the task of placing valuable older materials on line.
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They could also be lobbying for more material to be available in
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electronic format as well ].
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The most interesting section for communets that want to provide
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improved international business information to their community
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is:
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gopher -> umslvma.umsl.edu. -->subject area ---> business
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----> international marketing
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This site has gone from 420 logins in Jan 93 to 17,000 last Oct.
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--------------------------------------
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Also of interest is the unique approaches to information location
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and to subject area resources taken by the the University of
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Southern California. This gopher allows full text search of all
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data from its top level menu [ and there is a lot of data on this
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gopher ]. Just visit the Indexes topic.
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It also treats subject information uniquely by offering a List of
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Subjects which contain the subject related material from many
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seperate gophers' subject areas. Do have a look at both features.
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gopher -> cwis.usc.edu --> other gophers
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---> gopher jewels
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--> indexes
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---> search title
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---> search full text
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--------------------------------------------------------
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TRENDS
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The importance of Distance Education to the information
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superhighway is becoming clearer. More than 40 conferences on
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Education Technology are already announced for 1994. All of them
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will include discussions of Distance Ed. It looks like schools
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and libraries may end up vying for the LIFE LONG LEARNING role
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that distance ed is beginning to fill.
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Still funding is a problem. The U.K.'s open university has
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openned its database of distance education materials to the
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public for free. This formerly fee based service was not making
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ends meet or meeting its intended service goals so it hopes
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enough folks will sign up for the free service to allow it to
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find sponsorship.
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telnet --> acsvax.open.ac.uk
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answer the first three prompts with
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1 - icdl
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2 - {the name of your country of origin in capitals}
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3 - ARA
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---------------------------------------------
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The list of distance ed resources is Compiled by J. H. Ellsworth
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<je01@academia.swt.edu>. It was last updated: 21-October-1993
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This guide is available via FTP at host: una.hh.lib.umich.edu,
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path: /inetdirs, file: disted.ellsworth
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Among its most worthwhile listed resources is
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EDNET
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Education Net : listserv@nic.umass.edu
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EDNET is for those interested in exploring the educational
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potential of the Internet. Discussions range from K-12 through
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postsecondary education. A very active list.
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Send the usual message to the listserv.
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Also useful is the semiannual publication The Online Chronicle of
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Distance Education and Communication
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To subscribe to The Online Chronicle of Distance Education and
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Communication, send the following command to listserv@uwavm or
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to listserv@uwavm.bitnet
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SUB DISTED your_full_name
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------------------------------------
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NETWORKS and COMMUNITY is a public service of FUTURE DATA; a
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partnership of researchers and research system designers. Our
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research resources include all commercial and non commercial
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nets, along with over 200 cd-rom databases, 50,000 magazines and
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more than 30 million books. For commercial services contact
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Gwyneth Store - circa@io.org
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This newsletter is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN and may be used as you
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see fit. To contribute items or enguire about this newsletter
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contact Sam Sternberg samsam@vm1.yorku.ca
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