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NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY : March 15, 1994
Networks and Community is devoted to encouraging
LOCAL resource creation & GLOBAL resource sharing.
The 13th report of 1994 is the 19th weekly survey.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Coverage in this issue includes:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK CORRECTION ASSISTANCE NEEDED
News Reports from
AUSTRALIA CANADA and the USA
DISCUSSIONS NEW TOOLS TRENDS
-----------------------------------------------------------
===========================================================
SECTION NUMBER
QUOTE OF THE WEEK.................................... 1.0
CORRECTION........................................... 2.0
REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE.............................. 3.0
Author's Query.................................. 3.1
Business Plans Needed........................... 3.2
Editor's Personal Request....................... 3.3
NEWS REPORTS......................................... 4.0
Australia....................................... 4.1
Canada.......................................... 4.2
Open Gov't Campaign........................ 4.2.1
Telecommunities Canada..................... 4.2.1
USA............................................. 4.3
DISCUSSION........................................... 5.0
NEW TOOLS............................................ 6.0
NPTN Document Depository........................ 6.1
Other New Tools................................. 6.2
TRENDS............................................... 7.0
1.0 MY FAVOURITE QUOTE FROM THE PAST WEEK OF POSTINGS.
========================================================
or why we have our "educational work" cut out for us.
"I travel a lot. I get out my color laptop and many of the business
epople are curious. I explain what I do and when the Internet <
"word" > comes up. I generally hear something like - oh , yes, that
thing that Al Gore is building. Or Al Gore built that Internet
thing, yes, I have heard of it. The most recent one I liked was...
Well, now you know that the NSF is building this high speed
super-whatever thing to allow us to all watch as many as 500
channels of TV on. Many people think Al Gore designed,
developed and started up the Internet. Many people also think that
the Internet will allow them to watch 500 channels of TV as well.
........ One business traveller with American Express had
thought about buying a home satellite TV system. Why ?
Because he did not want to have 500 channels from his phone
company/cable company anywhere near his house. He held off the
satellite system purchase when he learned that there was a company
sending Internet News via satellite. He must have heard about
Pagesat ! The point is - Page One Headline: National Superhighway
etc. People read and think those headlines are really true. Its
sad." Joseph Stroup
2.0 CORRECTION
================
"I don't mind people saying bad things about me, but I do insist
that they spell my name correctly. The last name is Elmer-DeWitt,
with a hyphen and a capital W. Thanks."
Philip Elmer-DeWitt ped@well.com ped@panix.com philiped@aol.com
"Read TIME on America Online, where we get paid to take abuse."
3.0 REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE
=============================
3.1 AUTHOR'S QUERY for a upcoming book on Community Networks
"I'm interested in a broad range of information which could take
the form of program descriptions, literature references, articles,
brochures, people or system contact information, anecdotes, menus,
session transcripts, suggestions, hypotheses, problems, or other
tidbits that you think I could or should use.
In order to look at both current approaches and possible future
approaches I'm using six "points-of-view" through which to examine
community networks. These six points of view are as follows:
1. Conviviality (or "community spirit")
2. Participation in the democratic process
3. Community health and well-being
4. Education and training
5 Economic equity and opportunity
6. Information and communication
If you have any information to contribute - especially that
which is related to any of the "points of view" in innovative and
particularly effective ways - I would love to see it.
I'll gladly acknowledge any assistance you provide. I know that
I couldn't even think of undertaking a project like this without
help from the "community" of community network developers.
Thanks in advance! "
David Schuler dschuler@cs.washington.edu
---------------------------------------------
3.2 BUSINESS PLANS NEEDED
"The SALSANET organization is writing a business plan now and
we would like to learn from those who have gone before us.
I would like to receive (or fetch) business plans from functional
community networks or community access systems. ...
Please post these if possible. If not, could I get copies as well?
There are more of us that could use the business plan information!
Thank you, Sally Murray" sdmurray@mailbox.syr.edu
[ see the item on the new NPTN document depository - perhaps you
should send your responses there too. -ed ]
3.3 PERSONAL REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE
The compiler of this newsletter is working on a special report
about how to set up small business services on freenets. It is
intended primarily for civic nets, but will be useful for any
gopher site, etc. interested in serving local business. It will
also contain a compilation of ideas on gaining support from your
local business community.
I would appreciate pointers to any site with information of use to
local or visiting business people. This includes business
directories, lists of business funding sources, avenues for
business education, local statistics, tax and regulatory matters,
etc.
Please send your responses to Sam Sternberg <samsam@vm1.yorku.ca>
As I have a commercial internet research business - I may also make
use of anything sent in serving my commercial clients.
4.0 NEWS REPORTS
=================
4.1 Australia
The ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY TELEMATICS
has released a major report in an effort to influence the early
stages of Australia's reexamination of its position regarding the
academic use of the Internet. This study advocates the view of the
nascent Civic Networking community there.Copies are available from:
Geoff Holland, e-mail - geoffh@uow.edu.au, gholland@peg.apc.prg
>From the report - a "SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS"
1. That the broader social significance of AARNet as part of the
Internet and the emerging Global Information Infrastructure be
recognised, as well s the responsibilities it has as a major access
point to a global forum, and that it be recognised that this forum
essentially lies in the Public Domain and therefore carries the
universal right of access of a Public Common.
2. a) That AARNet be assigned a higher priority by the
universities, by ASTEC and by the Federal Government, so that
adequate funds can be secured from a mix of sources for its rapid
upgrading and expansion.
b) That AARNet does not look to non-academic not-for-profit
users, or small business to fund one-time costs, and that fees are
calculated to offset incremental (as opposed to average) recurring
costs.
3. That AARNet be developed as a major component of the Australian
information Infrastructure.
4. That AARNet recognise the value of the larger number of
low-level users so that access and reliability are not jeopardised
by mega-volume users such as in the areas of supercomputing,
video-conferencing and realtime multimedia online education.
5. a) That AARNet maintain free access to academic staff and
students.
b) provide free access to a number of not-for-profit
individuals and organisations outside academia.
c) That AARNet provide subsidized and minimum cost access to the
general not-for-profit community and possibly also small business.
d) That where a fee is charged for access for not-for-profit
users, it be in the form of a flat fee.
e) That all new not-for-profit users be given an initial period
of free access.
6. That AARNet change its name to reflect a broader agenda of
Public Education and Information Access while perhaps maintaining
"AARNet' as a subset of that agenda.
7. That AARNet provide support for software development for more
friendly user-interfaces, for improved online research tools, for
directory development, for online tuition and other tuition
services.
8. That AARNet maintain a reasonable level of direct user technical
support, including after-hours support.
9. That AARNet continue to provide space and free access to Public
Domain files, databases and software.
10. That AARNet work more closely with the national library network
to further develop a shared national knowledge resource.
11. That AARNet make information and statistics on its operation
and performance more publicly available.
4.2 Canada
4.2.1 - OPEN GOV'T CAMPAIGN
The Canadian Association of Public Data Users
<CAPDU-L@vm.ucs.UAlberta.CA> is working towards legislation
designed to bring Canada's government information policies out of
the Dark Ages.
Presently no equivalent of the US concept of fair use exists in
Canada. Government production means that the government only may use
material. This is the exact opposite to the US situation, where
government information is automatically in the public domain.
Background: The Campaign for Open Government (COG) was started last
summer by Peter Calamai, the editor of the Ottawa Citizen's
editorial page.
Several national groups, including CAPDU have representation
on this committee. Others include the Canadian Library Association,
Friends ofthe Earth, Canadian Bar Association, Canadian Labour
Congress, Social Science Federation, Canadian Chamber of Commerce,
Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Canadian Association
of University Teachers, Democracy Watch and the Geomatics Industry
Association.
The Campaign for Open Government (COG) has a single goal:
TO ENSURE AN INFORMED CITIZENRY THROUGH ELIMINATING THE
BARRIERS TO INFORMATION HELD BY GOVERNMENTS
1) PRINCIPLES
o Information produced and held by government should be
accessible to the public. This is the essence of
"openness".
o Governments should identify their information products and
holdings. The challenge for anyone outside of government is
to know what is being produced by a department or agency.
The major change required is for government departments to
adopt a principle that one of their objectives is to make
the public aware of all of the information they produce or
hold, with the expectation that what they have can be made
available. The actions to satisfy this objective should
include directories to information and proactive steps to
inform the public of information products.
o The information must be accessible. For information to be
of use to the public, it must be accessible in a format that
they can use, or capable of being transformed into such a
format by an "information intermediary" such as a library,
association or publisher. Consultation with potential users
should help define the keys to availability. For some
information, electronic access may be the most effective
manner.
o The cost of accessing the information should be minimized.
The principle to be followed is that the maximum price
should be the incremental or marginal cost of the additional
copy of a report, or the cost of copying a tape or diskette,
including the media cost and the postage or equivalent
distribution cost. Cost should not be a barrier to the
public.
2) SUGGESTED ACTIONS FOR GOVERNMENT
o To demonstrate a commitment to "open information" as part of
"open government", there are some actions that should be taken by
the federal and provincial governments. These have been selected
so as to avoid the need for new legislation. Subsequently,
some of these actions could be confirmed in new legislation.
o To further encourage the distribution of information
produced by governments, the government as the owner of the
Crown copyright should declare that it will henceforth allow
unrestricted copying, reproduction, etc, preferably with
acknowledgement, but without fee to all Canadians. Any
compilation of such material should not be subject to
right, whether done within government or by the private
sector.
o Increased use of public computer networks should be
encouraged by governments through the provision of databases
for access without incremental charges.
o Each government department, agency, royal commission, board
of inquiry or other emanation of government should be
required to produce a monthly (annual, weekly) compilation
of all reports produced in the previous month (year, week)
providing titles and a description with an indication of
availability (free or cost), or the need for an Access to
information (AtI) request, or an indication of the reason for
the non-availability (national security, Cabinet memoranda).
(It may be possible that these lists can be placed in the
INFOSOURCE for on-line access.)
o All polls commissioned by governments should be released to
the public within 90 days of the receipt of the poll results
by the government. The release should include the reports
and the data files.
o The Treasury Board guidelines on "open information" should
be reaffirmed and enforced. The Information Commissioner or
his/her provincial counterpart should be charged with
enforcing these guidelines.
o The governments should support effective public education
about AtI.
o Data and information assembled for other purposes should not
be treated as 'tradeable' data. Indeed, governments should
not be in the business of selling databases to obtain a
financial return.
o Licensing of databases to private sector groups should be
done on a non-exclusive basis. Any existing licences should
be so modified at the first opportunity. The costs of such
licences should be limited to the incremental costs of
copying the data.
o Any fees for the use of the National Library or National
Archives should be limited to actual incremental costs
incurred by the organization.
o All contracts between the government and its suppliers
should be publicly available as a matter of principle.
will an "open information" policy cost the government more?
It is believed that a more open information policy will actually
save the government resources now expended on the consideration
and satisfaction of AtI requests, since their numbers should be
reduced. As well, from the viewpoint of national interest,
better information should promote better decision-making, the
benefits of which should exceed the additional costs for making
such information available.
If in the directory of government information, the need for an
AtI request is indicated, then there will be the need to consider
the release of the information in advance, based on
certain principles. This should greatly reduce the scope of AtI
exclusions and administration.
For more information contact:
Wendy Watkins, wwatkins@ccs.carleton.ca
4.2.2 - TELECOMMUNITIES CANADA
"At long last, a draft set of by-laws is ready for comment. Please
retrieve a copy via anonymous ftp from alfred.carleton.ca
pub/freenet/telecom.by-laws or log into freenet.carleton.ca and
look into National Capital FreeNet/Futures/ menu. "
After suitable discussion, the founders will call for people to
sign the papers (and share the cost ... < $100 each).
4.3 USA
An excellent report on the TELLURIDE IDEAS FESTIVAL is available.
This appeared as an article in Fringe Ware Review #3
(ISSN 1069-5656). More information is available from:
Eric S. Theise, verve@well.sf.ca.us
Copies can be obtained from:
gopher://io.com/11/commercial/fringeware
e-mail: fringeware@io.com
FringeWare, Inc., POB 49921, Austin, TX 78765; +1 512 477 1366
" ... the Telluride InfoZone is at the heart
of this year's Ideas Festival. It's drawing the social hackers
here to brainstorm about Tele/Comm/Unity and, if the Telluride
Institute has its way, some of them will stay, to live, work, and
attract.
[.....lots deleted........-ed ]
"People [ the local towns people -ed ] want to know what the
opportunities will be for collaboration between the school and
library; for distance learning; for local content from the sheriff,
fire department, tax assessors, athletics, and zoning commission;
they want to know about tourism; they want to know about how
the local media (KOTO, Daily Planet) will be integrated; what the
InfoZone will offer to students and their parents. The questions
are handled diplomatically, if noncommittally, and people are urged
to get involved and to pay closer attention to media reports on the
InfoZone.
There's been speculation all along about the extent of local
awareness and support for the InfoZone, and this outburst of
questions is exciting. We outsiders sit back, listen and watch.
A show of hands suggests that more than 90% of the 60+ people live
here. More than 75% would dial into the InfoZone today if it were
operative."
(You can pick up the proceedings and other materials from the Ideas
festival in the WELLgopher's Community/Civic Networks/Telluride
section (gopher gopher.well.sf.ca.us), and Colorado SuperNet's
anonymous-ftp server, ftp.csn.org in the /Infozone directory.)
5.0 DISCUSSION
================
The listservs have not been very active for the past few weeks. The
primary topic of discussion remains the opportunities and dangers
that may arise from partially commercializing civic nets.
One message advocated abandoning the NPTN style commitment to no
charges for service and suggested sliding scale fees for listings
by businesses and larger non profit groups. Others pointed out that
without business support very small communities probably could not
find the resources to provide free access to the general public.
One person stated that government, educational organizations, and
businesses were all members of the community and the community
service mandate meant that freenets must also serve all of these
groups.
Another message advocated great care in making such concessions to
business needs. She cited the danger of being subverted into a mini
version of a commercial provider.
6.0 NEW TOOLS
===============
6.1 NPTN opens a PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE
DOCUMENT DEPOSITORY
[ I am very pleased to report that NPTN has reversed its original
decision and is testing a public document depository. Non NPTN
nets can contribute. Please identify the source organization!
Anyone may borrow materials. One commentator asked that only documents
which were essentially original material be deposited. - ed ]
"After much more debate over format, etc, we are ready to start
receiving your various documents. Because we don't really know all
the types of documents that we will be receiving everything will
be going into a common area at the beginning. As time goes by and
we get a handle on the various areas that exist we will break
things down by topic.
At the onset all the information will be placed in the ftp site
under:
pub/nptn.docs.
As time goes by we will add additional subdirectories.
To help organize the information. For you folks without direct
connections to the internet we will be placing the information in
a listserv archive. This will come on line about a week after the
ftp site.
With that said I'm sure you all are beginning to wonder "How do I
make a submission?" Well here you go. Simply e-mail your document
to docs@nptn.org and someone here will add it to the index and
appropriate directory. To make our lives simple we are asking that
submissions follow a few simple rules:
1) While it may cause you some inconvenience please send your
documents in ascii, with CR/LF where appropriate. It makes
everybody's life a lot easier.
2) The subject of the e-mail should tell us what type of document
it is, budget, job description, etc
3) The first line of the document should contain your system and
a one sentence summary of the contents of the document. Something
like this:
nptn.org: director of cybercasting services job description
This is VERY important because the summaries will be used to create
the index of documents.
Because we expect to get quite a few documents, and like everyone
else we have a limited number of hours to work with, if you don't
follow these guidelines we will in probably bounce your document
back to you for further editing.
As usual, if you have any questions please contact:
John Kurilec (jmk@nptn.org)".
6.2 OTHER NEW TOOLS OF INTEREST
1 - I highly recommend a NEW TERMINAL PROGRAM (to me, anyway) from
Cornell called Comet. It's on ftp.cit.cornell.edu in the
/pub/mac/comm/ folder
It lets you do IP and dialup connections with support for 3270and
lots of other stuff. Seems to be freely available, quite robust,
and with a bunch of features I have not tried yet. Steve Cisler
2 - The TALLAHASSEE FREE-NET SOFTWARE can be used with POP.
you can get it from ftp.scri.fsu.edu in pub/TFN. Not much
documentation yet, but a few Free-Nets have put it up on their demo
machines already. It's been ported to AIX, BSD and OSF1 versions
of UNIX. The creator is Diane Wood (904) 644-4295
wood@scri.fsu.edu
3 - How to get NASA INTERNET VIDEO
NASA has produced an 11-minute video describing the benefits to
schools using the Internet. The video, entitled Global Quest: The
Internet in the Classroom, is available through the broadcasts on
NASA Select TV, can be duplicated for no charge at the nearest NASA
Teacher Resource Center or Regional Teacher Center, or can be
purchased through NASA's central Operation for Educators (CORE) for
cost of $15. The video is freely copyable. For more information
Global Quest, contact NASA CORE, Lorain County Joint Vocational
School, 15181, Route 58 South, Oberlin, OH 44074,
ph. 216/774-1051, ext. 293.
4 - MAVEN VIA FTP
Maven is a brand-new piece of software allowing real-time audio
conferencing over the Internet. This capability has been available
on Unix machines, but as far as we know this is the first Mac
software freely available for this purpose. CNIDR has
been working with the developer to coordinate the release of this
software.
Maven, real-time Internet audioconferencing software for the
Macintosh, is now available via anonymous ftp from k12.cnidr.org.
ftp://k12.cnidr.org/pub/Mac/Maven-2.0a11.sea.bin
To subscribe to a discussion list about Maven, send e-mail to:
listserv@cnidr.org
Leave the Subject: line blank, and in the message type:
subscribe maven Your Name
7.0 TRENDS
============
We are going to be seeing more commercial imitators of the FREE
NET format. During the past week 3 new Commercial Ventures modelled
on Free-Nets were announced.
ACCESS ATLANTA is a joint venture between Prodigy and the COX
newspaper chain.
BBN - which has the federal mandate to assist in the development
in K-12 resources - is building a similar net using the CABLE
system in Lexington MA.
And stodgy old COMPUSERVE is providing Internet access and starting
some additional features that look very much like free-net based
ideas.
Meanwhile - Innovative approaches to community service in the true
spirit of the Freenet Movement continue to appear.
The Minneapolis Telecommunications Network Announced *Freedom And
iberty*. This new program is designed to cooperate with local
free-nets and assist in bringing NON PROFIT GROUPS On-Line. These
groups will in turn work on net access solutions for the
disadvantaged.
" All across this country, people are abuzz with excitement about
a new Information Super-Highway. There'll be a million new ways
to communicate, we'll have virtual reality and work from home,
there'll be fantastic riches made and our kids will all be smarter.
Yet, many people will be standing beside this so-called
Super-Highway and watch as life passes them by. Who will make the
on-ramp available to those who cannot afford the high-cost of
connections? Who will make this Information Superhighway
accessible to the poor, to the disenfranchised? "
For further information contact: Anthony Riddle <mtn@mr.net>
Minneapolis Telecommunications Network
---------------------------
Administrivia - the lovely look of this issue is due to the work
of my anonymous volunteer editor. Sam
==============================================
NETWORKS and COMMUNITY is a result of the work of people located
throughout the global Internet community.
Net facilities for the preparation of this newsletter are provided
by the DISTRIBUTED KNOWLEDGE PROJECT - York University - Canada.
Editing is done anonymously by a UNB librarian.
Back issues are archived through the kindness of the staff at
the WELL : gopher ---->gopher.well.sf.ca.us ->community --> civic
nets... ---> networks & community; & the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA
: gopher ----> gopher.nlc-bnc.ca
"subscriptions" are available through the generosity of the
Listowner for the RRE NEWS SERVICE: subscribe by sending e-mail to
rre-request@weber.ucsd.edu) with a SUBJECT LINE
reading "subscribe <firstname> <lastname>".
Additional distribution is assisted by the managers and owners of
NET-HAPPENINGS, COMMUNET, & the CANADIAN FREENET listservs.
This newsletter is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN and may be used as you
see fit. To contribute items or enquire about this newsletter
Contact Sam Sternberg <samsam@vm1.yorku.ca>
.
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