NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY : March 8, 1994 Networks and Community is devoted to encouraging LOCAL resource creation & GLOBAL resource sharing. The 12th report of 1994 is the 18th weekly survey. ---------------------------------------------- coverage in this issue includes: QUOTES OF THE WEEK CORRECTION ASSISTANCE NEEDED DISCUSSIONS EVENTS FUNDRAISING LEGISLATION NEW SERVICES TRENDS --------------------------------------------------- MY FAVOURITE QUOTES FROM THE PAST WEEK OF POSTINGS. ( both have been edited by me ) ================================================== 1 - WHAT COMMUNITY COMPUTING SHOULD BE ABOUT "I think we should be trying to collect and develop good ideas about how to make this all work to make healthier communities and more humane and effective governments. ........ What we haven't done is to fit that into the on-going routines of government and community life in practical and transforming ways. ..... I've seen too little thought about how it's going to make communities different, improve the workings of governments, change the character of public life. If you think about the nasty effect television has had on presidential campaigning in the years since Eisenhower, you will get an idea of the dimensions of the sequences that are possible. Can't we please do better than that?!" Putnam Barber Seattle 2 - GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE "I've been an activist outside of government--which I am now--and both an elected official and an administrator on the inside. ........ My general reaction to the discussion of whether government should or should not "run" telecommuncations systems is it depends on the government...A few basic points: 1. "Governments" are as different as the communities that elect them. To generalize about "government" in Canada or in the US is silly. There are thousands of local governments in both places, with different structures, politics, values, etc..--as varied as the communities, again, which they serve. The variety is not infinite--there are types of governments; types of systems--but it's essential to make this decision on a government by government basis. 2. A more general problem of government involvement right now, however, is that almost no public official understands what any of this entails. They aren't any further along the learning curve than their constituents, and considerably behind anyone who is participating in this discussion. Nor do most of them have the time to learn. They'd like to be able to communicate with their constituents in various ways, but someone has to make it easy for them to even understand how to do that. 3. The fate of public access on cable television should be sobering warning those who think that public involvement will be a panacea everywhere. I sat on Philadelphia's City Council when we awarded cable franchises. I took it all quite seriously -- interviewing all the companies, etc. Their response to public access requirements was a prerequisite for my support. The moment we awarded the franchises, the feds relaxed the regulatory requirements and the companies reneged on all deals. Those channels are blank. The City's own channel took three years to show anything, and now it's still basically bulletin board styled announcements. It's run out of something called the "public property" department whose major responsibilities the maintenance of public buildings...As I say, there's not a lot of vision here... 4. As important in big cities--perhaps more important--as any content on these channels--and I'm talking now about both cable and telecommunications channels--will be who gets the gravy. Affirmative action for hiring...specific contracts to specific people and groups...even small buck deals have their price ....I've played in all these arenas, and don't find them as noxious as most people do...It's disturbing, though, when that's all that elected officials care about. That's as big a threat as censorship--maybe bigger. 5. Government control won't be a problem..that is, until someone uses one of these systems at public expense to mobilize a major lobbying campaign against elected officials over some issue...that'll get their attention... and the reaction of all but the most decent governments will not be pretty. I left government in 1992 to return working with citizen groups...I accomplished a reasonable amount in both positions that I held, but the capacity to "empower" people in ways that challenged the system of which I was a part was limited...And if this is to be a tool for empowerment, then that would apply in most instances to government control of it.. Government should pay for the training...give it startup funds...make itself accessible as the White House is trying to do...but the rest of us should build it... Ed Schwartz Institute for the Study of Civic Values 215-238-1434 --------------------------------- CORRECTION ========== A NATIONAL GOPHER SITE FOR CANADA The National Library of Canada's Gopher server, which was previously reported as open, is accessible but under development. Comments and suggestions are appreciated, but visitors to the Gopher should be forewarned that some menu items are in place for developmental purposes and may not yet contain information or links. At present, the structure is being developed in only one of the official languages - English - for simplicity. Within the next few weeks, the same menus will be translated into French. The Gopher will be ready for registration then with the University of Minnesota. As soon as the NLC Gopher is open, announcements will be posted on several discussion lists and newsgroups. ASSISTANCE WANTED ================= 1 - CREATING A PUBLIC INTEREST GOPHER -------------------------------------- jmorris@resudox.net wrote " We are presently working on the gopher the group. I would appreciate any input from you as to what the content should be. We will have the Canarie gopher and the Well. There will be the minutes from the last meeting and general information." Any suggestions readers may have to improve the gopher site for Canada's Coalition for Public Information will be appreciated. 2 - DEVELOPING A NATIONAL ADVISORY BODY FOR CANADA -------------------------------------------------- The Advisory Group for the Information Highway is still being set up and as yet has no official name. The chairs, which may possibly be two co-chairs, should be in place by mid-March. Additional members of the group are likely to be selected by the chairs on the recommendation of Industry Canada. These members may have very little experience with the public information access/freenet/telecommunities sector and might need assistance with nominees. The following people are those who will probably be submitting recommended names to the council: Hon. John Manley,Minister of Industry 235 Queen St, 11th floor, East Tower Ottawa, Ont K1A OH5 613-995-9001 NET:jon@istc.ca Dr. Jon Gerrard Secretary of State Science, Research and Development 235 Queen Street, 11 Floor, East Tower Ottawa, Ontario K1A OH5 613-995-1333 NET: manley.john@istc.ca Michael Binder Assistant Deputy Minister STITT Industry Canada 0th Floor 300 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A OC8 613-998-0368 NET: not yet established Susan Baldwin DGNM Industry Canada 6th Floor 300 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A OC8 613-990-4262 NET: Not established yet It has been strongly suggested that community network groups, library, public interest and other organizations should be contacting all these people over the next two weeks or so in order to secure representation on the Council. 3 - ASSISTING A LOCAL GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW ZEALAND -------------------------------------------------------------- Here in New Zealand Local Government Reform and changes in legislation brought about changes in the way Local Authorities relate to their people and communities. This new non-prescriptive legislation, and a growing desire for self determination within communities, has meant involvement with people (partnership) to provide many different services and to help shape a better environment people live in. Many small and rural communities are wanting control over their own destinies. * Many Local Governments are adopting a "facilitation role" to encourage "community-based" facilities, services and projects. Before I leave for the USA (3 April) I have agreed to assist a Local Government representative (Karen has no access to the Internet) in locating background literature (reading lists) publications (newsletters, magazines, electronic newsletters and lists etc), case studies, contact particulars of key contacts and those she could visit (eg Local Governments, community organisations, development groups, research and education providers). In September Karen is planning a nine week study tour to North America and the United Kingdom. LOCAL GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT WITH DEVELOPMENT The focus is on the involvement of Local Government with community based programmes, services and projects for, telecommunications, distance education, telecomputing, information kiosks, health, education, management of at-risk environments, community facilities, employment, new business development, economic development (of rural communities, rural towns, rural cities and regions), noneconomic outcomes (eg recreation and lifestyle) etc. YOUR ASSISTANCE IS APPRECIATED I look forward to your reply. Thank you for providing any information you can on resources that are available (via Internet and paper) and possible contacts. Roger Mackenzie rogerm@nzonline.ac.nz 4 - BERKELEY WOULD LIKE THE SAME INFO TOO! ------------------------------------------- If you want to pass on your thoughts about the challenges of turning government into a "broker" or "facilitator," I'd welcome those, too. You can reach me by e-mail at robbg@well.sf.ca.us Rob Gurwitt Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley [ as a later post points out - some locations have been very successful getting government involved - ed "Have a look at the Government Centre on freenet.carleton.ca. We have a city government and a regional government participating. Half of the elected officials in the city can be reached via email and there are newsgroups about their wards." ] DISCUSSIONS =========== The principal theme this week has been the formula for developing a viable civic net. Nancy Willard Who is co-authoring an upcoming book on creating community systems wrote: "It is my hope that the future will bring public-private partnerships, where the government folks take the responsibility provide access to public records, libraries take the responsibility to sift through the incredible information resources available and provide pointers/access to their local residents, and a non-profit organization handles the other aspects that we now consider to be community networking, local information, local conferences, Internet access, etc. Of course, each community will need to work out what is best for it." In a separate communication she wrote that the standard by which business activities on the part of Free-nets should be judged is their impact on the PUBLIC INTEREST. Much of the discussion on both com-priv and communent dealt with the potential of commercial activity to impact both the free-net movement and Internet in general. SEE TRENDS for additional info. Some contended that junk mail would hurt Internet. Others proposed a variety of mechanisms to accommodate business on the Internet. One freenetter claimed that only by permitting business activities on free-nets could they survive in long run. An interesting response pointed out that Freenets without Internet connections could be created for very little money. Thus avoiding the whole issue of constant fundraising. EVENTS ====== 1 - "Computers, Freedom and Privacy 94." Chicago, Il. March 23-26. Sponsored by ACM and The John Marshall Law School. contact: George Trubow, 312-987-1445 (CFP94@jmls.edu). 2 - Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing (DIAC)-94 "Developing an Equitable and Open Information Infrastructure" Cambridge, MA. April 23 - 24, 1994. Sponsored by CPSR. Contact: cwhitcomb@bentley.edu, or doug.schuler@cpsr.org. 3 - Computer-Human Interaction 94. Boston, Mass. April 24-28. Sponsored by ACM. Contact: 214-590-8616 or 410-269-6801, chi94office.chi@xerox.com 4 - "Navigating the Networks." 1994 Mid-Year Meeting, American Society for Information Science. Portland, Oregon. May 22 - 25, 1994. Contact: rhill@cni.org 5 - Rural Datafication II: "Meeting the Challenge of Providing Ubiquitous Access to the Internet" Minneapolis, Minnesota. May 23-24, 1994. Sponsored by CICNet & NSF. Contact: ruraldata-info-request@cic.net. Send name, mailing address and e-mail address. 6- "Information: Society, Superhighway or Gridlock?" Computing for the Social Sciences 1994 Conference (CSS94). University of Maryland at College Park. June 1-3, 1994. Contact: Dr. Charles Wellford, >301-405-4699, fax 301-405-4733, e-mail cwellford@bss2.umd.edu. 7 - Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computer Science. Washington, DC June 9-11. Contact: 415 617-3335, hopper-info@pa.dec.com 8 - Third Biannual Conference on Participatory Design, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, October 27-28, 1994. Sponsored by CPSR. contact: trigg@parc.xerox.com. Submissions due April 15, 1994. FUNDRAISING =========== 1 - A DIRECT APPROACH TO GOVERNMENT FUNDING SUCCEEDS ---------------------------------------------------- FEBRUARY, 1994--STATE FUNDING BILLS PASS All of us at La Plaza wiped our brows and gave sighs of relief upon hearing that the two bills introduced into the New Mexico State Legislature to help support La Plaza were passed with flying colors in both the House (Rep. Frank Peralta) and Senate (Sen. Carlos Cisneros). Both bills were pegged at $500,000 each. However, after the legislative budget paring knife took over, the total funding for the project has been cut, but at press time, we do not know the exact amount. Nonetheless, it appears that La Plaza will receive some state funding for development. Thanks to everyone who called or wrote their legislators. Richard W. Bryant Vice President and Director of Projects and Development La Plaza Telecommunity rbryant@hydra.unm.edu 2 - A VERY USEFUL DOCUMENT AVAILABLE AS A MODEL FOR GROUPS SEEKING GOVERNMENT SUPPORT -------------------------------------------------- >From : Clyde "Bird-Dawg" Forrest Forrest Research & Consulting Group Internet E-mail: ud793@freenet.victoria.bc.ca HIS PREAMBLE BLASTS THE CANADIAN TELCO's VISION "I encourage you to consider how we can build on this model to contrast Stentor's vision statement. Note that in the BC model, 65% of the $12.9 million price tag is for people. If we need about $13 million for BC, what do we need to Free-Net all of Canada? $100 million? Maybe $200 million? That's still less than what BC ministries spent on I.T. last fiscal year. Compare a community run Free-Net vision which sez "within one year, we can build & maintain Canadian public electronic communications utility for a couple 100 million" versus Stentor's $30 billion/10 year consumer rollout strategy. Too much, too little, too late. ----------------------------------------------------------------- BRITISH COLUMBIA FREE-NET BUSINESS CASE """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" [ The document includes these and other sections - ed ] SECTION PAGE # """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Summary ...................................................... 2 Purpose & Goal ............................................... 4 What is Free-Net? ............................................ 4 Standard Free-Net Costs ...................................... 5 Free-Net Benefits ............................................ 6 [ This section includes a major examination of the economic benefits of civic nets -ed ] Also covered are : Potential Major Funding Sources: Potential Partners ---------------------------------------------- 3 - NEW NTIA FUNDING PROGRAM GUIDELINES ANNOUNCED _________________________________________________ Key elements of the NTIA program : Total grant funds available in this round: $26 million Size of individual grants: No guidance for this first round. Application deadline: May 12, 1994 Announcement of awards: Late summer or early fall, 1994 Duration of grants: 6-18 months Special consideration: Requires matching support Special consideration: Emphasis on partnerships for applications Special consideration: Emphasis on computer-based electronic networks Eligible Entities: State and local governments; nonprofits Types of grants: 1) Planning Grants (40% of available funds); 2) Demonstration Projects (60% of available funds) Selection process: Competitive merit review Additional note: Guidelines are approx 37K Excerpts: Summary: "...funds for planning and demonstration projects to promote the goals of development and widespread availability of advanced telecommunications technologies; to enhance the delivery of social services and generally serve the public interest; to promote access to government information and increase civic participation; and to support the advancement of an advanced nationwide telecommunications and information infrastructure." "The TIIAP will provide matching grants to state and local governments, non-profit health care providers, school districts, libraries, universities, public safety services, and other non-profit entities. Grants will be awarded after a competitive merit review process and will be used to fund projects to connect institutions to existing networks and systems, enhance communications networks and systems that are currently operational, establish new network capabilities, permit users to interconnect among different networks and systems, and bring more users on-line. Equally important, they will help leverage the resources and creativity of the private sector to devise new applications and uses of the NII. The success of these pilot projects will create an ongoing process that will generate more innovative approaches each year." NTIA contact: Dr. Charles Rush, Acting Director of the Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications National Telecommunications and Information Administration Department of Commerce Telephone: (202) 482-2048; fax: (202) 482-2156 e-mail: tiiap@ntia.doc.gov NTIA BBS via Internet: ntiabbs.ntia.doc.gov; or at: iitf.doc.gov LEGISLATION =========== 1 - INTERNET CONNECTIONS FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF DEMOCRATIC DISCOURSE [ guaranteeing flat rate access ] Proposed amendment to HR 3636. .............. much material deleted -ed ................ On page 25, add a new section SEC. 106.INTERNET ACCESS AND FLAT RATE PRICING OF EMAIL SERVICES (a) APPLICATION -- All telephone service providers are required to offer a reasonably priced tariffed service which provides Internet access. (b) RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE COMMISSION -- The Commission shall determine a minimum level of service for Internet access. The minimum level shall include the ability to send and receive electronic mail to and from the Internet. ..................... The rationale for this proposal is to insure that the Internet will continue to provide opportunities for citizen to participate in democratic discourse on a wide range of topics (since flat rate email pricing is considered extremely important for Internet discussion groups). Please copy (cc:) comments to James Love of the Taxpayer Assets Project. v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: love@essential.org. jamie -------------------------------- 2 - PUBLIC INTEREST AMENDMENTS TO H.R.3636 A. UNIVERSAL SERVICE VISION "(2) To make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, regardless of location or disability, a switched, broadband telecommunications network capable of enabling users to originate and receive affordable and accessible high quality voice, data, graphics and video telecommunication services." This is in-lieu of the current provision that reads: (2) to encourage the continued development and deployment of advanced and reliable capabilities and services in telecommunications networks" B. PUBLIC INTEREST RATES A new provision will be added to the bill that reads as follows: "(iii) Such plan [referring to a plan developed by a federal/state joint board] shall address the need for public access to telecommunication services at incremental cost offered by non-profit, public institutions, public education, library, public broadcasting and government entities, both as producers and users of services." The Alliance for Public Technology working with Congressman Al Swift (D-WA), have developed the amendments, which HE WILL OFFER DURING MARK-UP OF THE BILL IN FULL COMMERCE COMMITTEE. HOWEVER HE NEEDS TO KNOW THAT THERE IS BROAD BASED SUPPORT. AT THIS TIME, WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THAT THERE WILL BE NO SERIOUS OBJECTIONS FROM INDUSTRY, EITHER TELCO OR CABLE. The purpose of the first amendment is to include in the preamble of the bill a statement of national purpose, similar to the statement in the 1934 Act, except that this makes clear that the national policy is for the eventual deployment of a broad band network to every home that has the capability to enable "upstream" video...that is, the ability of any user on the system to input video and, in effect, become a publishers. The purpose of the second amendment is to establish the principle of non-profit rates. It amends that part of the bill that creates a federal/state Joint Board to come up with a Universal Service definition. This adds the requirement that they develop a plan for non-profit access and use at "incremental cost," which means the cost of one addition service or user. This would be substantially reduced from standard rates. LET CONGRESSMAN SWIFT KNOW YOU SUPPORT THE AMENDMENTS BY E-MAIL LETTER TO THE ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC TECHNOLOGY STATING YOU OR YOUR ORGANIZATION SUPPORTS THE AMENDMENTS. AND I WILL SEE THAT THEY GET IT. (SSIMON@IDI.NET) -------------------------------------- 3 - CLIPPER PETITION PASSES 40,000 The CPSR Internet Petition to oppose the Clipper Proposal has now passed 40,000 signatures. The petition has been signed by users at over 2,600 sites, including ,100 companies and 800 colleges. Messages continue to arrive at a rate of over 1,000 per day. To sign on to the letter, send a message to: Clipper.petition@cpsr.org with the text "I oppose Clipper" (no quotes) You will receive a return message confirming your vote. To obtain a copy of the petition, email a blank message to petition-info@cpsr.org For more information on Clipper, email clipper-info@cpsr.org. You will receive a copy of the Clipper FAQ. 4 - CPSR ANALYZES THE CANTWELL LEGISLATION This legislation takes some important steps to resolve a serious problem facing some of our most dynamic industries. It would give the Secretary of Commerce exclusive authority over dual use information security programs and products, eliminates the requirement for export licenses for generally available software with encryption capabilities, and requires the Secretary to grant such validated licenses for exports of other software with encryption capabilities to any country to which we already approve exports for foreign financial institutions. Indeed, there is no provision in H.R. 3627 that would in any way rescind the Administration's recent decision to adopt key-escrow Clipper technology as the government encryption standard. The legislation would do precisely what Rep. Cantwell said it would do relax restrictions on the export of strong encryption products outside of the United States. Some have suggested that passage of the Cantwell bill would create an environment in which it is less likely that Clipper will become the defacto encryption standard within the United States. This view was expressed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and several large corporations in a letter to the President last December which expressed "tentative" support for Clipper on a "voluntary" basis. CPSR dissented from this position in a subsequent letter to the President and expressed its opposition to the Clipper proposal under any circumstances. While it is possible that the Cantwell legislation would make it less likely that Clipper will become the de facto privacy standard, such a result is by no means a certainty. It is, in fact, possible that passage of the legislation would provide better U.S. encryption products overseas than would be available within the United States -- particularly if, as many fear, Clipper eventually becomes a mandatory standard in this country. We believe that the Cantwell bill is a step in the right direction, as it would remove current disincentives to the development of strong encryption products by U.S. companies. But the proposed legislation is not a panacea -- it would not address the threat to privacy in the United States created by the Clipper initiative. Export controls on cryptography are a related issue, but they are not central to the Clipper controversy. The Administration's adoption of the key-escrow Clipper standard must be opposed and reversed. ------------------------------------------ [ editors note - the administration has tacitly recognized the validity of criticism of the security of the clipper chip proposal. It announced this week that government agencies can only use clipper for sensitive information - NOT CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. Now you just have to take part in the effort to convince the Gov. that no one wants this flawed piece of nonsense for any purpose.] 5 - QUASI OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF THE ROLE OF CIVIC NETWORKS Americans Communicating Electronically (ACE). is recommending the issuance of an Executive Directive assigning responsibility to all Federal Departments and Agencies for the establishment of information access programs to help create and foster an "inter-active citizen-government communications system". ACE does not recommend a new layer of bureaucracy. ACE is however, urging Federal departments and agencies to fully adhere to the OMB A-130 circular utilizing existing funds and resources and, to respond to a new culture with new directions and a commitment to openness in government. GOALS OF THE INFORMATION ACCESS PROGRAMS The goals of the information access programs would be to foster and facilitate interactive communications between the public and their government, and to broaden public participation in the development of government communications policy. Citizens would be provided with access to a wide range of public databases containing electronically stored information accessible through an electronic gateway. ................ lots deleted ........................... COMMUNITY-BASED CITIZEN DEVELOPMENT/FREE CIVIC COMMUNITY NETWORKS With the participation and support of federal departments and agency information access programs, the coordinating body could support community-based citizen development of free civic/community networks with a focus on creating broad-based community participation and opportunities. In time, this would lead to the innovative development of nation-wide community computer systems and use of the national communication technology for economic development opportunities. Citizens could learn new issues, gain a sense of accomplishment, build new relationships and develop evidence that every individual matters. In addition, the coordinating body would foster and promote understanding of the social benefits to be gained from community-based inter-active communication applications. COMMUNITY AND GOVERNMENT COOPERATION Community and government cooperation is critical to the success and balance of this major undertaking. The participation and contribution of federal staff resources would ensure a more useful information flow with greater ease to providers of free community networks, citizens, information architects, community activists, public policy analysts, facilitators, and administrators through computer-mediated cation, such as; email, bulletin boards, electronic conferencing that forms a direct link between the public and government, which is the centerpiece of ACE. Finally, the coordinating body would be responsible for conducting periodic studies to gauge the information needs of the public and compiling an annual report of the findings and goals of the organization. NEW SERVICES ============ 1 - STATISTICS CANADA GOPHER [ as I predicted this gopher will not offer the public any free access to the information they pay to have gathered - ed ] It's Internet service -"Talon" is now open. " Our internet service includes a Gopher with WAIS, a LISTSERVER and an anonymous FTP This node will not replace current data dissemination practices. Information about Statistics Canada's products and services will be made available on the node but all products and services which Statistics Canada currently sells will not be made available on this node. "Statistics Canada's Gopher can be accessed via a gopher client by specifying the following host name and port number: talon.statcan.ca (142.206.64.2) port=70 For more information, contact thoemic@statcan.ca 2 - ENVIROFREENET, A PROJECT OF THE ENVIROLINK NETWORK TELNET ENVIROLINK.ORG or 128.2.19.119 Login Name: Press RETURN Password: Press RETURN 1. About the EnviroLink Network... 2. The EnviroGopher-- Environmental Information Library... 3. EnviroFreenet News (please read regularly) 4. EnviroProducts-- Green Products and Services... ---- deleted ------ 3 - NEW SERVICES FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA A SMALL RURAL BRITISH COLUMBIA FREE-NET COMES ON LINE & there is now a WWW SERVER ON THE VICTORIA FREE-NET. A - For those of you lucky enough to have IP connections to the net, it can be found at the following URL: http://freenet.victoria.bc.ca/vifa.html For everyone else, we are running the secure "Lynx" vt100 client, you can use that by connecting to the Victoria Free-Net and making the appropriate choice under "Library and Information Services" on our FreePort menus. [ Lynx lets you see the information even when you don't have a graphic interface available to you. All WWW sites should provide this service - ed ] B - TRAIL BC - this tiny community - population 3,000 now has a free-net. CIAO! Free-Net TELNET CIAO.TRAIL.BC.CA or 142.231.5.1 login: guest For general information contact - info@CIAO.trail.bc.ca If you require assistance contact - Help!@CIAO.trail.bc.ca To offer assistance (or money) contact - support@CIAO.trail.bc.ca Positive Suggestions and Ideas contact - ideas@CIAO.trail.bc.ca ---------------------------------- 4 - LISTSERV SEARCH TOOL LISTGopher or "I love to get email." [ This tool only covers listserv's for Librarians - but its an idea that deserves to be spread to all types of listservs - ed ] LISTGopher is a gopher+ item whose purpose is to facilitate the searching and retrieval of archived LISTSERV messages. Despite the large amounts of noise, I have long believed LISTSERV archives contain a wealth of useful information. How many times have you wished you could retrieve that little bit of information you read in that posting a few months ago? Or how often do you wish you could glean postings from a LISTSERV list without subscribing to the whole thing? LISTGopher can help you with these and other problems. North Carolina State University Library gopher Type=1+ Name=Search library-related LISTSERVs (LISTGopher) Path=1/library/disciplines/library/listgopher Host=dewey.lib.ncsu.edu Port=70 URL: gopher://dewey.lib.ncsu.edu:70/11/library/disciplines/library /listgopher 5 - COMMUNITY NETWORK INFORMATION As part of an ongoing project on community networks, a set of of surveys from over 30 community networks are now available. "http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/community-networks/" These surveys are intended to help develop a "community memory" for community network developers. Feedback on the survey and new surveys are welcome, as part of an effort to keep the information current. Send questions and comments to doug.schuler@cpsr.org. 6 - COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS CRITICAL OF NII FINS INFORMATION AGE LIBRARY ADDITIONS Washington, DC Fins Information Age Lib will release, Mar 8, 1994, a new online directory: Periodicals_and_Newspapers. This directory will contain thoughtful, thorough, and provocative articles of special relevance to the emerging Information Age. In this undertaking, Fins intends to track the antidemocratic propaganda model of the mass media developed by American business that has been discussed by writers during the last half of the twentieth century (Arendt, 1950; Lindblom, 1977; Herman & Chomski, 1988). Special emphasis will be placed on the technological imperative of the Information Age now being pursued by the "one-eyed prophets" of the Clinton-Gore Administration, which threaten totalitarian dangers of the "Technopoly" described by communications critic Postman (1992). Finally, articles that discuss alternative possibilities that can sustain and enhance democracy will also be highlighted. Follow these directions to browse the Fins Information Age Lib: If you have a Gopher client : gopher to inform.umd.edu and go to the directory Educational_Resources/Computers_and_Society/Fins_Information_Age If you have ftp : ftp to inform.umd.edu cd to inforM /Educational_Resources/Computers_and_Society /Fins_Information_Age Federal Information News Syndicate, Vigdor Schreibman, Editor & Publisher, 18-9th St. NE #206, Washington, DC 20002. Internet: fins@access.digex.net. 7 - TWO SOURCES FOR ACCEPTABLE USE POLICIES A - If anyone wants a really big file of [ free-net ] AUP's and you haven't received it, please let me know. Dave Loan aa112@freenet.carleton.ca B - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has got a large collection of AUPs, primarily from academic institutions, along with critiques. It's part of the Computers & Academic Freedom archives. Via Gopher, it's at: Name=Computer policies from many schools (with critiques) Type=1 Port=70 Path=1/CAF/policies Host=ftp.eff.org 8 - NPTN - PROPOSES A "LOW COST" APPROACH TO RURAL NETWORKING FOR INFORMATION: If you have any questions about NPTN or the Rural Information Network, please contact: NPTN - Rural Information Network Box 1987 Cleveland, Ohio 44106 e.mail: info@nptn.org 9 - A GOPHER SITE TO SERVE URBAN NATIVE AMERICAN POPULATIONS an excellent gopher site from British Columbia has opened with the specific purpose of serving the needs of urban native american groups. The material under "library" provides access to virtually all other Internet gophers and sites created to serve native americans. gopher ------------> gopher.native-ed.bc.ca TRENDS ====== The impacts of BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET are increasing rapidly. A company called Electronic Postal Service which purports to pay people to receive commercial e-mail. The company sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Well research by Brock Meeks show that it is a fraudulent posting. Another item on the same theme - this time about the Internet listserv with "the largest membership". HOTT circulated an announcement last year that also sounded to good to be true. So far nothing has been delivered of the promised cornucopia of articles from the commercial press. It made no mention of ads in its announcement. Now this from the L.A. Times, 3/2/94 "...But Lewis believes users will accept tasteful ads in the form of promotional stories known as 'advertorials,' which in HOTT will take the form of perspectives from computer company executives, helpful hints, or new product announcements." "The market will speak," said Dern. "And it's hard to know what the reaction will be and it depends on how it's done." Lewis says HOTT will have eight times as much news in it as ads. Once the circulation hits 50,000, Lewis said he will seek sponsors who will be charged somewhere between $2000 and $3500 per screen of advertorial. A few sponsors have already approached him." [ Lewis is involved with HOTT, Dern - is unaffiliated with HOTT and is an writer and former magazine editor - whose work focuses primarily on the Internet -ed ] 2 - OPPORTUNITIES FOR FOUNDATIONS TO IMPACT THE CIVIC NETWORKING MOVEMENT ARE GROWING. There have been numerous calls for the creation of mechanism to simplify the development of new civic nets. NPTN has decided to partially meet this need by creating an "exclusive" document repository. For non members there needs to be a public equivalent. Techies have also been calling for a mechanism to share improvements to software being used by freenets. Both of these needs would benefit from a single site to locate these services on. These needs represent an excellent opportunity for the Foundations with an interest in Urban issues to provide a major public service at very low cost. Perhaps the Morino, Benton, Kellog and other foundations with an interest in this area could cooperate in funding such a site. ============================================== 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 ". 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 .