NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY : January 10, 1994 Networks and Community is devoted to encouraging LOCAL resource creation & GLOBAL resource sharing. compiler : Sam Sternberg samsam@vm1.yorku.ca This is the 7th weekly survey. Coverage includes: FUNDING LEGISLATION DISCUSSIONS NEW SERVICES & TRENDS ============================================================= FUNDING: *Annenberg/CPB. Guidelines for 1994 funding from the Annenberg/CPB Math and Science Project are available from the Project, Attn: Guidelines, 901 E. St. NW, Wash. DC 20004-2006, or call 202-879-9711. [ it is disappointing not to find an internet address here ] -------------------------------------------- Information on funding cable based projects is included in the Legislation section's lead article. -------------------------------------------- In British Columbia Canada on the video front. A public/private sector consortium partnership to coordinate province-wide video network services roll-out is being developed. The primary focus is on distance education applications. They are pulling together the business case in January and plan to present to Cabinet in early February. Similar to Ontario's Network Infrastructure Program, there's $100 million in "BC 21" funding up for grabs. Monitor the gopher -> freenet.victoria.bc.ca for futher news. ---------------------------------------------- Nebraska's primary and secondary schools will soon be using the Internet to enhance learning. A consortium of 19 Educational Service Units (ESUs), each serving various Nebraska school districts, recently installed 15 DEC OSF/1-based DEC 3000 Model 400 Alpha AXP systems as a first step in building a statewide education network that links teachers and students to the Internet. The ESUs were funded through legislation requiring Nebraska's school districts to gain Internet access. Contact: Don Ferneding, Data Systems Manager for Nebraska's ESU #3, donf@esu3.esu3.k12.ne.us ----------------------------------------------- The state of Ohio is actively working to provide Internet access to K12 schools, through the Ohio Department of Administrative Services. Many schools now have a T1 link. At 4 pm, these buildings are locked up, and not used. The T1 link is not used at night. The Ohio Educational computing Network (and several other states as well) has begun issuing accounts to teachers. Where do they point their gophers and menus? Most show links to Free-Nets. ------------------------------------------- LEGISLATION Over the last few weeks a number of items about communets and cable systems have been posted. This a background report by the compiler of the list, on the U.S. situation. The Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 has been passed and the details of its implementation are now being worked out. After a disasterous deregulation effort under Reagan in 1984 led to cable rates increasing at 3 times the inflation rate and numerous other problems; congress has seen fit to offer communities a limited return to their original power to impact local providers of cable service. Limited is the key word. The new law requires the establishment of FEDERAL standards for customer service and technical operation quality. Joint local/federal regulation is mandated; but for local authorities to act they must appply to the FCC for certification. They are then able to impact the basic service rate standards. This service tier is not taken by many subscribers because servces are too limited. None the less, this power could be very meaningful to communets wanting local access to the Internet and other future services on the NII. Certified authorities will have the power to regulate charges for both the equipment and installation neccessary for receiving basic cable services. Congress hoped this law would help encourage effective competition for the entire cable industry. The Clinton Administration is of course now interested in competition across all delivery systems. Our opportunity lies in lobbying for voice and data network access to be part of the FEDERALLY MANDATED basic service package. This is really the only way for the administration's vision to be realized.If such access is not "basic" then it can not possible meet either the goals of universal access or effective competition. Such regulation does not have to impose any additional cost on cable operators. It could merely require that they be open to allowing any and all organizations wanting to offer voice/and or/data services access to their system. It should not permit them to be exclusive offerers of such services. Cable operators would actually benefit from such government imposed access requirements. It would help guarantee the alliances of cable systems which remain independant [ of telcos and other media suitors ] could offer a great deal of phone and other services to consumers without ever having to pay fees to phone companies. Communets would benefit by having competitive providers available locally for internet access. Phone system subscribers would also benefit from such mandated local competitive opportunity. Because it is impossible to determine if future technical achievements will make phone or cable systems the low cost provider of data and voice services, real competition will help everyone achieve the lowest possible rates. The major players in Cable re-regulation have been the Consumer Federation of America, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Telecommunications officers and Advisors and, of course, the state and federal associations of cable system operators. If you have contacts with any of these groups, start lobbying. The FCC needs to hear from them and from you on this matter. If your local community cable regulator is interested in experimenting with cable based community computing services and Internet access; they should be encouraged to seek a grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration --------------------------------------------- ( see the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance on the Internet for more details ). Public Telecommunications Facilities_Construction and Planning (PTFP) FEDERAL AGENCY: NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE OBJECTIVES: To assist in the planning, acquisition, installation and modernization of public telecommunications facilities, through planning grants and matching construction grants, in order to: a) Extend delivery of public telecommunications services to as many citizens of the U.S. and territories as possible by the most efficient and economical means, including the use of broadcast and nonbroadcast technologies; b) increase public telecommunications services and facilities available to, operated by and owned by minorities and women; and c) strengthen the capability of existing public television and radio stations to provide public telecommunications service to the public. TYPES OF ASSISTANCE: Project Grants. ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS: Applicant Eligibility: a) A public or noncommercial educational broadcast station; b) A noncommercial telecommunications entity; "Special consideration" is given to applications which would increase minority and women's ownership of, operation of , and participation in, public telecommunications entities. Beneficiary Eligibility: General public and students. ------------------------------------------- In Canada the cable systems and the phone companies are regulated by one agency, the CRTC. It has paid little attention to the details of how it might encourage real competition. Canadian phone rates and data rates show the sorry result. --------------------------------------------------- The latest edition of the Federal Communications Law Journal, published jointly by the Indiana University chool of Law - Bloomington and the Federal Communications Bar Association, is now available through the WorldWideWeb at: http://www.law.indiana.edu:80/fclj/fclj.html This issue is devoted to the Cable Television Industry. Contributors include Representative Edward J. Markey, Commissioner Andrew C. Barrett, Nicholas W. Allard, David Alan Nall, and Carl R. Ramey. ------------------------------------------------- The private sector advisory council, appointed this past week, by Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, was created to facilitate public and private sector input to the Administration on how best to put the new infrastructure in place. Together, the public-private partnership will serve as a forum to articulate, coordinate and implement the NII by developing comprehensive telecommunications and information policies to best meet the needs of both government and the private sector. These recommendations will ultimately lead to the removal of most judicial and legislative restrictions on all types of telecommunications companies. The 27 members represent an excellent cross section of public interest groups, multiple levels of government, and business interests. There is very strong representation by informed public advocates. It is clear that the administration is serious about public involvement in the process. Exactly the opposite has occured in Canada to date. The Canadian Prime Minister or a representative is expected to articulate the new administrations policy at the upcomming ITAC conference, but little is know about the substantive content of the expected announcement. ------------------------------------------------- DISCUSSIONS The NPTN list revealed a possible partnership with PBS. " We have been discussing a partnership whereby we will be providing Academy One and other cybercasting services to their PBS Online/Learning Link network; and they will be providing some of their PBS features for our general cybercasting/Academy One network. Some other developmental activities are being discussed along with some joint grants- manship possibilities. " There was more interesting discussion on graphical interfaces. There was also some discussion of the problems related to using gopher systems as freenet or as freenet extensions. See the TRENDS section for more information. A fairly heated discussion evolved over the question of offering live CHAT services on Free-nets. The final position was that the service is both valuable under several circumstances and a major resource hog. Techniques for controlling access to chat at freenets offering it are a must The NPTN video conference to public TV stations was declared a success by both the national group and several local organizations which participated. This will further cement relations between NPTN and PBS. ------------------------------------------- The COMMUNET listserve was relatively quiet. Some discussion of the role of Community Economic Development Centers and the idea of such development took place. --------------------------------------------- A founder of the CYPHERWONKS listserv wrote to tell me that my statement about its death was mistaken. He vowed to work on its revival but by the following monday morning he posted an announcement suggesting the remaing subscribers abandon the list. A small number of interesting posts were made during the revival effort including a good one on the state of work on Digital Cash systems. If your interested in Digital cash you might contact the poster, Bill Stewart -> bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com or billstewart@attmail.com The "death" of this list is a direct result of a conflict between the style and the substance of many of the less useful postings. A beligerent attitude on the part of a number of participants drove the more intelligent CONTRIBUTORS away. In the end a lack of simple civility killed this effort. ON THE INTERNET EVERYONE KNOWS IF YOUR A DOG. ----------------------------------------------- EVENTS Adapting Information Technology & Computing. A two-week online workshop sponsored by Rochester Institute of Technology and EDUCOM's Project EASI (Equal Access to Software & Information) will be held January 31 - February 12, 1994 to provide answers to questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act and to other questions adapting information technology and computing. Register by subscribing yourself to listserv@nysernet.org and leave the subject line of the e-mail blank. Put one line of text into the body of the message: sub adapt-it "Firstname Lastname". If you need info send e-mail to smwodl@ritvax.isc.rit.edu. ------------------------------------------------ The Internet Navigation Course. An online distance-learning pilot course designed to teach basic telecommunications procedures (for all computers) to inexperienced computer users and to familiarize them with Internet services. For more information and to register contact dirk@oldcolo.com or dave@oldcolo.com. ------------------------------------------------ A fee based gophering course was announced this week but anyone wanting to learn for free can gopher to CWIS.USC.EDU where to "lets go gopherin" course is accessible of the top menu. ------------------------------------------------ NEW RESOURCES The most interesting new effort to improve information access on the internet is the NETLINK SERVICE OF WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY. As evidenced by almost every book on the Internet to hit the stands. The big problem once you learn to navigate is learning were to find anything. Veronica searches often produce fewer than 5% useful hits for people who do not begin the search with very good terminology information. At WLU a new search system is being developed which allows the user to focus on topics relating to specific subjects; and to narrow their searches to material available from sources within specific geographic areas. gopher ---> liberty.uc.wlu.edu ------------------------------------------------------ The Jan 94 issue of "Communications of the ACM" is devoted to "Social Computing" and includes the following articles: The National Forum on Science and Technology Goals Community Networks: Building a New Participatory Medium Computing at Work: Empowering Action by 'Low-Level' Users Educating Computer Scientists: Linking the Social and the Technical Computing and Accountability How Good is Good Enough? An Ethical Analysis of Software Construction and Use Groupware and Social Dynamics: Eight Challenges for Developers Renewing the Commitment to a Public Interest Telecommunications Policy Canadian FreeNets and culist.can-freenet are mentioned in the 'Community Networks' article. The publication can be found at universities libraries (and maybe online -- try asking at acmhelp@acm.org). ------------------------------------------- The ACE Progress Report for 1993 is available from : ttate@esusda.gov The report provides a good summary of the politics of the NII and has much of interest to communet advocates. WHAT IS ACE? Americans Communicating Electronically, known as ACE, is a voluntary self-help group of agency staff at federal, state and local governments, non-profit organizations and coalitions, public libraries, public and private universities, communities and individual citizens. ACE believes in the vision of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and promotes the NII Agenda for Action. The goal is to create and foster information access and to facilitate interactive communications between citizens and their government, broaden public participation in the development of government communications policy and provide citizens with access to a wide range of public information stored electronically. Special emphasis is focused on serving individuals without computer access through a network of Citizen Participation Centers in local communities. These centers will build on ongoing local efforts such as community free-nets, extension offices, SBA offices, Social Security offices, post offices, etc. Projects include working with the 3,100 Cooperative Extension Service offices and the 1,500 satellite offices of the Small Business Administration, community libraries and others to provide single points of contact or one-stop shops for obtaining government formation by citizens. These centers will also foster training, learning and community development. WHO IS CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN ACE? WASHINGTON, DC BASED GOVERNMENT AGENCIES: Agriculture, Agency for International Development, Archives, Census, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Government Printing Office, General Services Administration, Health and Human Services, Interior, Justice, Labor, National Science Foundation, Small Business Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission, State, Transportation, Treasury. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Congressional Staff, House Information Systems U.S. SENATE: Senate Staff, Senate Computer Center WHITE HOUSE STAFF: Office of the Chief of Staff, Office of Administration, Office of Correspondence, Office of Media Affairs, Office of Science and Technology Policy, National Performance Review NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS: American Society for Association Executives, Association of Government Accountants, Cities in Schools, Coalition for Networked Information, Capital Access, Center for Civic Networking, Institute. MAYBE YOU SHOULD CONSIDER JOINING? -------------------------------------------------- TRENDS The role of gopher services in Communets is growing. A wonderful free-net gopher is being offered by the TRIANGLE FREE-NET. This system is entirely gopher based and it shows a great deal of thought in its design. particularly impressive is the way it integrates local, national and Internation resources for each subject area. Those of you looking for ideas to help you build local support will find one item of particular interest. An excellent group of suggestions for using communets to improve local communities is on the system. gopher to -> tfnet.ils.unc.edu --> government ---> national/international gov information ----> US and World Politics -----> COMMUNITY-IDEA-NET Another freenet gopher with a very different design philosophy but lots of useful information is the Victoria British Columbia free-net system gopher -> freenet.victoria.bc.ca ------------------------------------------------------- Publicly supported work that will improve the Internet continues; even as the Commercial sector proclaims is devotion to the task. Over the longer term work like this from McGill University in Montreal will effect us all. " The McGill Photonic Systems group is a new group in the EE department. The group is headed by Professor H. S. Hinton, holder of the BNR/NT-NSERC chair, and is also collaborating very closely with the CITR (Canadian Institute of Telecommunications Research), whose brand new headquarters are right here at McGill. The group consists of three professors, one postdoctoral research specialist, and six grad students, with more on the way. The group is presently starting a five year research project whose goal is the conception, design, fabrication and testing of a 1 Terabit/second free-space optical backplane. Such a backplane could be used in telecommunications switches, massively parallel supercomputers, and, eventually, high performance SCADA (Supervision, Control and Data Acquisition) systems." In the mean time the Internet engineering task force is busy worrying about tomorrows problems on our behalf. It is developing standards for ATM [ high speed transmission ] use. And it has already lowered the failure rate on the backbone considerably. The 45 megabit backbone is about 65% completed now. This is the section that will use ATM technology once the standards are worked out by this marvellous group of volunteers. I will be focusing most of two upcoming issues on the situation in Canada. This is in response to my being a Canadian and because two major conferences will take place in the next 3 weeks. One is for a new alliance of public information providers [ libraries ] and the other is for the Information Technology Association of Canada - ITAC - [ commercial and governmental ]. Reports on both meetings will also be provided. ------------------------------------------------- NETWORKS and COMMUNITY is a public service of FUTURE DATA; a partnership of researchers and research system designers. Our research resources include all commercial and non commercial nets, along with over 200 cd-rom databases, 50,000 magazines and more than 30 million books. For commercial services contact Gwyneth Store - circa@io.org This newsletter is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN and may be used as you see fit. To contribute items or enguire about this newsletter contact Sam Sternberg samsam@vm1.yorku.ca .