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