Level 6: The data transporters ——————————————— When the online service's host computer is far away, the user often faces the challenges of:
1. Noise on the line, which may result in unreadable text orerrors in the received material.2. Expensive long distance calls
There are many alternatives to direct long distance calling. Some offers better quality data transfers and lower costs. The regional packet data services used to be a popular option. In Scandinavia, the offerings of the local PTTs are called Datapak. Similar services are offered in most countries, often by a national telephone monopoly. Competitively priced alternatives are appearing in many countries as national telecom monopolies are brought to an end. For example, Infonet, TRI-P, and i-Com compete successfully with former monopolies for transport of data to and from North America. The Internet is a global network serving millions of mailboxes. It provides very cost-efficient mail exchange with private and public networks throughout the world. IXI is a packet data network operated by European Research centers. DASnet offers transport of mail between mail systems that have no direct connection with each others. (More about this in Chapter 13.)
Level 7: The user ————————- This is you and me. Turn the page to the next chapter and read about how to use the online services.
The user interface refers to what you get on your computer screen and how, when you call an online service. It includes menus and help screens, and various options to tailor the service to your personal preferences.
Navigating by menus is simpler ——————————————— Most online services have menus to make them easier for novices to use. A typical menu looks like this:
R)ead messagesQ)uick search available messagesW)rite messagesC)omments to SysopD)ownload programs?) for helpG)oodbye. This is enough!
Enter a letter (or ?) to select a function. Enter R to readmessages. There is hardly any need to read the documentation touse this service.CompuServe greets European users with this menu:
CompuServe Europe EUROPE
1 About CompuServe 2 What's New 3 Member Assistance 4 Electronic Mail 5 Personal Computer Support 6 Company Information 7 Logon Instructions (Europe) 8 CompuServe Information Service (U.S.)
Enter '8' to get another menu:
CompuServe TOP
1 Member Assistance (FREE)2 Find a Topic (FREE)3 Communications/Bulletin Bds.4 News/Weather/Sports5 Travel6 The Electronic MALL/Shopping7 Money Matters/Markets8 Entertainment/Games9 Hobbies/Lifestyles/Education10 Reference11 Computers/Technology12 Business/Other Interests
You can "go" to Associated Press' newswires or the section for home-schooling in the Education Forum by entering numbers listed in menus. The service is like a tree with menus by every set of branches. A code in the upper right-hand corner of each screen tells you exactly where you are. The last menu has the code 'TOP' meaning that this menu is at the 'top of the tree'. By each CompuServe system prompt, the command GO followed by a destination code will take you directly to a desired location. Enter GO IBMHW to go directly to the IBM Hardware Forum. The GO command will save you time and money. Similar codes and commands are used on several other online services. On many systems, the first menu encountered when logging on is a list of announcements and new offerings. The following is from GEnie, General Electric's Consumer Information Service (U.S.A.):
GEnie Announcements (FREE)
1. July 1991 GEnie Billing Completed. To review yours, type:….*BILL2. Hot Summer Nights continues to SIZZLE…………………….*HSN3. NEW…Quality Product and Amazing Value in………………..SOFTCLUB4. LAST CHANCE—-Blue GEnie Sweatshirts……………………..*ORDER5. Color hypermedia in Apple II world. HyperStudio RTC in……..A26. Meet the Product Manager, FREE RTC……………………….SFRT7. "Future of Online Gaming" RTC with GEnie Game Designers in….MPGRT8. A Revolutionary Credit Service - TRW CREDENTIALS…………..TRWCREDIT9. 900 Numbers: Ripoff or Good Business Sense - RTC 8/11 9PM…..RADIO10. Air Warrior Convention set for Sept.26-29. in Washington……AIR11. SEARS Fall/Winter Catalog On-line NOW…………………….SEARS12. How to Sell your CRAFTS for Profit……………………….HOSB13. Stellar Warrior Campaign starts with a FREE weekend………..WARRIOR14. Followup Investment RTC with Mickey Friedman in……………REAL ESTATE15. Federation II, the adult space fantasy……………………FED
Enter #,
At the 'Enter #' prompt, enter '7' to go directly to the "Future of Online Gaming" conference (RTC=Round Table Conference). Enter H for Help, or press Return to get to the systems' main menu. You can "go" to selected services by entering a videotext page number code or a number (selected from the menu). Type 'mail' to get to your mailbox, 'backgammon' to play, or 'SEARS' to visit the online version of this North American shoppers' paradise. 'Mail' has page number 200. Enter 'm 200' to go there directly. To go to NewsBytes' technical news reports by subject, select "5" from menu page number 316. GEnie even has a faster way. Like some other services, it let you stack commands. Instead of issuing one command, and then wait for the system to respond before issuing the next command, stacking allows you to put all commands on one line. The command "m 316;5" will take you directly to choice 5 from the menu on page 316 without displaying intermediate menus. Many online services use the same template. They have commands like GO SERVICE-NAME, JOIN SERVICE-NAME (or just J), DELTA SERVICE- NAME, or just the code or name of the offering as in 'mail' and 'sears' above. Entering H or ? (for help) usually give you assistance. Few services are fussy about whether you use lower or capital letters in commands. On some services, and especially if a selection requires just a letter or a number, you don't even have to press return to make it happen. This method is used on many bulletin boards. Some codes are standard. This is particularly the case with "?", H, or Help for more information.
Test drive ————— Several commercial systems let you try the service for free or at lower rates. You can check what's out there without paying for the exploratory connect time, and get some free training in how to use the service. CompuServe's Practice Forum (GO PRACTICE) does not carry any connect charges, but applicable communication surcharges are still in effect. They also have a free 'Guided Tour'. Free trials are particularly useful before a search in an expensive database. Use DialIndex on Dialog. Orbit has DBIN (The database Index), and Data-Star has CROS. They are master indexes to the databases on the system. First, select a general subject area, then enter your search terms. The systems will respond with lists of databases and hit counts. Note: You must go to the 'real' databases for results. You cannot retrieve actual information during a test drive.
Selecting an expert level ————————————- Most services regard all new users as novices. The software designers assume that users don't want (or are unable) to read lengthy explanations. They think that most users prefer navigation by going from menu to menu. Commercial services may support this view for financial reasons, and especially when charging for access by the minute. (Some of them let you read their help screens for free, though.) Menus are important when browsing new offerings, or accessing services that we seldom use. Frequent users of a service, however, quickly learn how to do things. Menus may soon begin to annoy rather than please. Reading them costs money, and it slows our communications down. We do not need menus when accessing online services in fully automated mode. Your communications program remembers exactly what to do, and does all the typing for you. There is no point in paying extra for having menus. You'll not read them anyway. The objective is to access the service at maximum speed and the lowest possible cost. Most online services can be tailored to your personal needs and preferences. Many let you choose between:
* Full menus* Short menus* A prompt line with a list of the most often usedcommands,* a prompt character or word (see "prompt" in appendix 4for examples). Prompts can be used by automaticcommunication script files to trigger the next action.
If concerned about costs, note that you can use expert mode without being a true expert. Just print the menus, and keep them by your keyboard while moving around. Some users draw 'road maps' of the services to navigate more quickly. Others automate the process using automatic communications scripts.
Tailoring your services ———————————- The need to tailor the online service's prompts and menus differs considerably from user to user, as they use all kinds of computers for communication. Some screens are large. Other screens can only display a few lines of text at a time. One user of my BBS even used a Hewlett Packard pocket calculator with a tiny, tiny screen. Many online services allow you to tailor the way information is sent to you. If you are satisfied with how things are, skip the next couple of pages and read from "Connecting the first time." If curious of your options, read on for a somewhat brief and technical overview. Besides a selection of various types of menus, you can usually also set the following preferences:
* What menu is to be the first, when you access the service?* The first menu is to be a tailored menu containing yourfavorite offerings, and nothing else.* Colors, graphics, or no colors/graphics.* Preferred file transfer protocol (to avoid a question eachtime you want to transfer a file).* Desired terminal emulator, like TTY, VT-100 or VT-52.* CAPITAL LETTERS or Mixed Case.* What ASCII character code to use for the DELETE function.* How many spaces to insert when expanding TABs in your mail.* Number of lines per screen (for example, 24 on an IBM PC, oreight on a TRS-80 Model 100. Whether scrolling is to pauseafter each screenful or not.)* Number of characters per line (for example, 80 lines on a PC,or 40 on a TRS-80 Model 100.* If the linefeed character is to be sent or not.* If blank lines are to be sent.* Whether the service is to check when you log on to see ifyou're using special software (as in 'Inquire for VIDTEX' onCompuServe).* The use of 'echo'. Is the service to return the charactersthat you enter on your keyboard?* Use of delay when sending linefeeds. (Useful if capturingtext to a dumb printing terminal. If text scrolls too fastfor the printer, you risk losing some of it.)* Choice of prompt character, or prompt text string. This isuseful when communicating by script files. On CompuServe, Ihave asked the system to add the BackSpace character (ASCIIcharacter number 8) to the end of all forum prompts. Sincethis character is rarely found in messages or other texts,I can safely let scripts depend on this prompt character forunattended communication.
Displaying information on the screen —————————————————— An 'A' is not an 'A' no matter what service you use. If you call Tocolo BBS in Japan (Tel.: +81-3-205-9315. 1200 bps, 8,N,1.) with a non-Japanese MS-DOS computer, chances are that the welcome text will look like this:
*———————————————————————————————* * D0:[ BBS (<^/9] 7.8) * * 62>] =3 —-> 3 (@^2K.3 03-205-9315) * * 3]V3 <^6] —-> 24 <^6] 6D^3 C=D A-3 * * (Wed 9:00-17:00 J R]C I @R 5T=P C^=) * *———————————————————————————————*
You'll need a Japanese ROM (Read-Only Memory) in your computer, a special graphics program, or a Japanese language operating system to have the Kanji characters displayed properly on your screen. The characters that you see on your computer's screen are based on a code. The computer finds the characters to display from a table built into your system's hardware or software. Most personal computers can be preset to use various tables depending on your needs. When communicating in English, you may want it to show Latin characters. When writing in Japanese, you may want it to display Kanji characters. Those writing in Norwegian, often want to use the special Scandinavian characters . If the first two of these Nordic characters read like the symbols for Yen and Cent, you're not set up for Scandinavian characters. If your system is set up correctly, they should look like an 'o' and an 'O' overwritten by a '/'. The code telling your computer what to display, may also contain information about where to put characters and what colors to use. Thus, an online service may order your computer to display a given character in column 10 on line 2, and to print it in blinking red color. If you're not set up correctly, these codes may show as garbage on your screen rather than as a colorful character in a given position. If you call a service set to display text in VT-52 format, and your communications program is set accordingly, then you should be OK. VT-52 is a setup that makes a program or a service 'behave' like a DEC VT-52 terminal. Being able to view VT-52 coded text on your screen, does not guarantee that you can capture this 'picture' to a file on your disk. Your communications program may need special features to do that. If these features are missing, you are in for a surprise. The text in your capture file may look like in this example (it came on a single, long line on my computer):
—————————————————————————————————— *H*J*Y"4 Innhold*Y%> *Y&4Emneoversikt 1 Brukerprofil 6*Y)4Stikkord A-] 2 Bruker- *Y*4 veiledning 7*Y,4Informasjons- *Y- 4leverand|rer A-] 3 Teledatanytt*Y.W 8*Y04Personlig indeks 4*Y2H *Y34Meldingstjenesten 5 Avslutte 9*Y64 ]pningsside *00# *Y 4TELEDATA 880823-1538*Y74 NTA01-00a*Y74 *Y74*Y74
——————————————————————————————————
The character '*' in this example refers to the ESCape character (ASCII number 27). ESC is used to tell your computer that what follows is a VT-52 display command. The codes following the ESC say where text is to be printed on your screen (from line number x and column number y). If your communications program cannot save VT-52 coded text in a readable way, you'll need auxiliary programs to remove or convert the codes. Some communication programs let you take snapshots of the screen, and store the result in a file. This usually gives good results, but it may be a cumbersome approach. Prestel (British Telecom, England) belongs to a group of online services called videotex (or viewdata). Minitel (in France and the U.S.), Alex (Canada), and Prodigy (U.S.A.) are also in this group. They believe that beautiful color graphics, large characters, and menus give them a competitive advantage. CompuServe is often called a videotex service because of its emphasis on menus. However, most call it 'ASCII videotex' as it is not depending on special display formats. Their philosophy is that 'plain text' is required to attract many users across hardware platforms. The viewdata services use graphical display standards with names like Prestel, CEPT, Captain (Character and Pattern Telephone Access Information Network System, in Japan), Telidon (Canada), Minitel, Teletel (France), GIF (the Graphics Interchange Format), Viewdata, and NAPLPS (The North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax). You often need special terminal machines to use some viewdata services. On other services, you must use special software plus an emulator card in your computer. Users of the communications program Procomm Plus can buy a Viewdata module for conversion of Prestel videotex text to plain ASCII, i.e., plain text without imbedded special codes. Many MS-DOS based bulletin boards let you set access defaults to colors and graphics. Most of them use ANSI graphics in welcome texts and menus. Users of Procomm must set their program to ANSI BBS to take advantage. Capture these welcome texts and menus to a file on your hard disk, and view them with an editor. They are filled with ANSI escape codes, and thus hard to read (and search). The good news is that conference and forum mail only rarely contains such codes. Many users routinely keep captured online information on their hard disks for later reference. If this is your intention, make sure that text is sent to you in plain ASCII, or TTY mode.
TTY sends one line at a time, and only uses the codes TAB,BackSpace, Carriage Return and LineFeed during the transfer.The rest is 'plain text'.
Most online services offer TTY format. You can use the setting almost everywhere. Even the videotex service Prestel offers an option called 'TTY Teletype'. If 'TTY' or 'ASCII' is not on your online services' list of options, try 'Others' or 'Other computers'. These settings usually identify your computer as unable to handle 'standard' colors, sound and graphics. Viewdata pages may provide "selling pictures," but the screens often have a low contents of information compared with TTY-based services. They are therefore not my favorite services for news in full-text. In other applications, like games, colorful graphics are a definite advantage.
Connecting the first time ————————————- If you have unlimited financial resources, go ahead and call up services all over the world. Learning by doing is exciting. If resources are limited, start by reading user information manual. Or, go online to capture key menus and help texts. Print them out on paper for further study before going online again for a 'real' visit. I always hurry slowly during my first visits to a new online service. I call up, capture information about how to use it, and disconnect. It may take me days to study the material. My objective is to find what the service has to offer in order to plan how to use it most efficiently. The first important command to look up is the logoff command. There is nothing more frustrating than entering "bye" only to get an error message. If lost, try "quit", "exit", "logoff", "off" and "G", in the hope of finding the correct command. These are the most usual variations. You should also try HELP or "?". If you really can't figure out how to get off a system, just hang up on it. Be careful, though. Some systems will continue to charge for a period, even after you have disconnected by hanging up. One of the first things that I do, is set my options to expert status, though I am obviously an amateur at this stage. Often, I also start automating the process during my first visits. I write script files for automatic access and quick navigation to key offerings. Another good strategy is to look for automated offline readers or systems (see Chapter 16 for details). Others prefer paper and pencil. They write a list of required commands on a piece of paper, like this:
Call 0165At CONNECT: ENTER @SP ENTERAt the NUI prompt: Nxxxxxppppp-a170041At Enter 'dix' and
Put the list by your keyboard before calling the service. Follow it carefully. After a while you may remember the procedure, and can throw away your notes.
Good luck!
* Programs, game and funOnline adventure games. The virus threat.* Hobbies. Holiday travels. Collecting stamps or coins.Roots, music, and online shopping.
Online services have one thing in common with newspapers, magazines and books. What they offer, varies from provider to provider. The next chapters will focus on the contents of the offerings. Appendix 1 has details about how to access the major service providers. Small online services often have interesting offerings in specialized areas, and especially when they are based on local phenomena or events. They tend to be more personal. They often present their 'wares' in a local language, and offer very large collections of free software. The large online services have hundreds of thousands of users. The activity is often high. They usually attract interesting (and competent) participants to their conferences and forums, have more programs available for download and more news sources and databases to search. They generally give you a wider choice. We will focus on the large international services. These are available from anywhere without too much effort, and using them comes surprisingly cheap. Therefore, please remember that this book just covers the top of the iceberg. Cheaper services may be found elsewhere, and they may even be better tuned to your particular areas of interest.
Locating game software ——————————— The fastest, easiest and cheapest is to call an online service to download game programs. You'll find an overwhelming number of programs for all types of microcomputers. Many games are free. We call them "Public Domain" or "Freeware" programs. Others are distributed free. You do not have to pay to get them and try them out. If you want to use them, however, the copyright owner expects you to pay a fee. We call them "shareware" or "user supported" programs. When the game has been transferred to your personal computer, you can play without worries about communications costs, or the busy signal on your phone line. My favorite game is shareware. The name is Arachnid. It is an MS Windows solitaire game (patience) made by SP Services, P.O. Box 456, Southampton, SO9 7XG, England. The desired registration fee is UKP 15.00 (English pounds). You can download the program from my board as WINCARD.EXE. The file is 106 kilobytes large. WINCARD.EXE is a special distribution file, which contains three games and all supporting files. The EXE extension may fool you into thinking that it is a program, and in a way it is. The file is a self-extract file, meaning that you just enter "WINCARD" on an MS-DOS computer to extract the game files from the "package." Games are usually distributed in such distribution files. All files used by a game (or several games) is put into one file by special software, and compressed in size. This makes retrieval of programs easier and cheaper. You do not have to download many related files individually. The transfer takes less time. (Read about how to extract programs from distribution files in appendix 3). You will find some of the largest collections of games on the North American services CompuServe and EXEC-PC BBS. You will also find many throughout the Internet.
| TRICKLE is a large collection of public domain and shareware |
| programs for MS-DOS, CPM, and other computers. For information |
| about how to use TRICKLE, send a message through Internet to |
| |
| LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU |
| |
| In the TEXT of the message write |
| |
| /pdget pd:
Chances are that online services in your area also have many programs to offer. Most free bulletin boards have more software than you'll ever get around to try. Usually, there is a natural specialization between boards. Those using the Unix operating system, have the largest number of programs for such machines. Those running on MS-DOS computers, have more programs for such computers. Some games are trite and bad. Others are brilliant. There are ladder games, games challenging your responses (racer car driving, flight control, war games, subsea games), electronic versions of traditional games like Backgammon, Yatzy, chess and bridge, educational games (geography, mathematics and history), puzzles, fractal programs (drawing beautiful pictures on your screen), psychological tests, text-based adventure games, and other strange and funny creations. Here is something for any taste or belief. If you want to get rich in a hurry, pick programs that increase chances of winning horse race bets, or other "real world" money winning games. If you're into beautiful girls, fill your hard disk with picture files in GIF, PCX or other graphics formats. (Sorry ladies, there are not many pictures of naked boys around.) You'll also find software that will display the pictures that you just retrieved. Keen users of the more popular games often want to swap tricks and discuss experiences: Super Nintendo players regularly meet on the SNES mailing list (on SNES@spcvxa.spc.edu). To join, send your subscription request to: SNES-Request@spcvxa.spc.edu . For chess, try the Chess Discussion List (CHESS- L@GREARN.BITNET) unless Chinese Chess (on XIANGQI@INDYCMS.BITNET) is what you're looking for. CompuServe has a Chess forum (GO CHESSFORUM) with message sections called: Chess Basics, Theory & Analysis, News Wire, Hardware/Software, Casual Games, Electronic Knights, Oriental/Variants, Tourneys (Open), USCF Rated Games, Team Play, and Time Out. Usenet excels when it comes to games:
rec.gambling Articles on games of chance & betting. rec.games.board Discussion and hints on board games. rec.games.board.ce The Cosmic Encounter board game. rec.games.bridge Hobbyists interested in bridge. rec.games.chess Chess & computer chess. rec.games.design Discussion of game design related issues. rec.games.empire Discussion and hints about Empire. rec.games.frp Discussion about Role Playing games. rec.games.go Discussion about Go. rec.games.hack Discussion, hints, etc. about the Hack game. rec.games.misc Games and computer games. rec.games.moria Comments, hints, and info about the Moria game. rec.games.mud Various aspects of multi-users computer games. rec.games.pbm Discussion about Play by Mail games. rec.games.pinball Discussing pinball-related issues. rec.games.programmer Discussion of adventure game programming. rec.games.rogue Discussion and hints about Rogue. rec.games.trivia Discussion about trivia. rec.games.video Discussion about video games. rec.games.video.arcade Discussions about coin-operated video games.
With so many games and programs around, it is difficult to stay current about new programs and new versions of old ones. Consider subscribing to the MS-DOS Archive Additions (one-way) information service. Internet MS-DOS archive managers use it to announce new additions to their collections. To subscribe, send a message to LISTSERV@TACOM-EMH1.Army.Mil with this command in the body of the message:
subscribe msdos-ann
These announcements are also posted to the Usenet newsgroup called comp.archives.msdos.announce .
| It is probably easier for you to relate to references like | | "rec.games.video on Usenet," than to XIANGQI@INDYCMS.BITNET. | | References to BITNET mailing lists are made in various ways | | throughout the book, just as it is online. This is the basic | | rule: | | | | All BITNET mailing lists are 'managed' by a LISTSERV program, | | which handles all subscription requests. When you read a | | reference like XIANGQI@INDYCMS.BITNET, then that means that | | a subscription request must be set to the LISTSERV at the | | INDYCMS computer on BITNET. Mail to the forum, however, must | | be sent to XIANGQI@INDYCMS.BITNET to be forwarded to the | | other members. | | | | For more information about these strange address codes, and | | how to use them, read about BITNET in appendix 1. You may | | find it useful to read about email addresses in Chapter 7. | | | | All BITNET mailing lists can be used by email through the | | Internet. Several BITNET hosts also have Internet addresses. | | Example: LISTSERV@NDSUVM1.BITNET can also be reached as | | LISTSERV@vm1.nodak.edu . When dual addresses are given, | | Internet users should use the Internet address, while BITNET | | users should use the BITNET address. | | | | Note: In cases where a BITNET mailing list has dual addresses, | | we have usually given the Internet address. If you are on | | BITNET, and using these addresses are difficult or impossible, | | ask your local postmaster for help. |
Computer viruses ———————— Few online users ever live to see or experience a computer virus, but they do exist. So, read this: A virus is a small, hidden computer program that can cause the loss or alteration of programs or data, and can compromise their confidentiality. It can spread from program to program, and from system to system, without direct human intervention.
The chance of your computer being infected is small, but you're never safe. Therefore, download a program for virus detection and identification, like VIRUSSCAN from McAffee Associates, 4423 Cheeney Street, Santa Clara, CA 95054-0253, U.S.A. They also have virus disinfection programs (for MS-DOS computers). For more about viruses, subscribe to VIRUS-L@LEHIGH.EDU. CompuServe has the Mac New Users Forum (with a a Virus Clinic section), the McAfee Virus Help Forum, the Symantec AntiVirus Forum, and more. FidoNet has a VIRUS echo. ILINK has VIRUS-I. Usenet has bit.listserv.valert-l (Virus Alert List), and comp.virus .
Online games —————— If you're into games, why not investigate online adventure games? There are many alternatives. Prestel (England) offers TRASH, an environmental multi-user game with a futuristic theme and full of humor. Up to 64 persons can play simultaneously. " …Callers play out the role of pandimensional refuse disposal officers, whose primary aim in life is to clean up the multiverse, as the Trash environment is called." "With a diverse range of 'psionic powers', which vary from the nasty (pyrokinesis) to the gentle (faith healing), at their command, Trash players roam across dimensions and universes, completing various tasks." Bulletin boards throughout the world invite you to role playing games. Some have graphics, music and sound effects. Dungeons & Dragons is a popular choice. On EXEC-PC, play Startrek. Select an identity and "play it out" according to its character. If you're a real afficionado, check out rec.arts.startrek.info on Usenet or the list RASI-L@ncc1701e.uucp (write LISTSERV@ncc1701e.uucp to subscribe). Advanced players swap tricks on STARGAME@PCCVM.BITNET. On many BBSes, MUD is a most popular game.
| Multi-User Dungeons (MUD) is a structured and user-modifiable | | online environment, which allows users not only to interact | | with each other, but to do role-playing, build and furnish | | living areas and interaction areas, extend and create the | | interactive "space" and the rules for using that space. |
Popular choices on CompuServe are strategy games like The Island ofKesmai and Megawars. One game can last for weeks at a time. On CIX(England), many prefer the multi-user dungeon game DiscWorld.If you prefer sport fantasies in the armchair, check out GEnie.They offer Rotisserie League Baseball. Decide what team player tobe, and join in a match of American baseball.Nintendo offers online games through the Famicom Networks inJapan and the U.S. Your PC must have a special graphics card toplay games like GO and Shogi, a Japanese game of chess.
Chat —— Chat, or "keyboard talking," is a popular attraction, and in particular on the large online services. Your first attempt will probably be a strange experience. When may people talk simultaneously in chat mode, incoherent sentences seem to fly over your computer screen. It takes some training to be able to read what each of them is saying. CompuServe's Citizen Band Simulator (GO CB) is an electronic version of the hams' short-wave radio. It has 72 CB Simulator channels. You can chat with anonymous members, have fun and find new keypals. On EXEC-PC's Chat and Entertainment System up to 64 users can talk simultaneously. GEnie calls their service Livewire CB. On BIX, look for CBIX. Some users are serious about chatting. Several large companies are heavy users. Although this kind of talking is a slow process, it has advantages. It is easy to document the discussion. People from places geographically far apart can meet at a low cost to discuss. Some online services charge less for chats than for other services.
My hobby ———— There are online forums for most hobbies: collection of stamps and coins, genealogy, music, holiday travels, skiing, purchase of consumer electronics, video, filming, and more. Those you meet in the clubs share your interests. They come to exchange information and experiences, to listen, swap stamps or coins, participate in club auctions, and exploit favorable group discounts when buying things for their hobby. In these clubs, the main attraction is the open messages that people write to each other. Many clubs also have libraries filled with special software (like data base programs for collectors) and information files. Coins (on Coins@rocky.er.usgs.gov) is a forum for discussion of Numismatics, the study of coins, American and International. Paper currency is also a welcome topic, but trading is not allowed. To subscribe, send a message to robert@whiplash.er.usgs.gov .
Music ——- ILINK, an international exchange of conferences between bulletin boards, has a forum for country music lovers. It presents itself in these words:
COUNTRY MUSICCountry & Western music including bluegrass and other relatedforms. Discussion of artists, techniques, instruments &musicians. Host: John Stewart
One oasis of civility in the BBS maelstrom is the 150-board ILINK network — recently renamed from InterLink. Unlike most BBS networks, ILINK carefully evaluates each board before permitting membership. "We are very selective — some say overly selective," says ILINK's international host Andy Keeves. Choosiness keeps ILINK small but upholds the decorum of its message bases.
Usenet has rec.music.country.western . FidoNet has 60S_70S_PROGROCK about the progressive rock music of the 60's and 70's, gospel music in CHR_GSPL_MUSIC, a club for selling and buying between musicians (MUSICIAN'S_SERVICES), and (MUSIC_COMP_101) for aspiring composers. CompuServe has a bunch of forums. Check out the Music/MIDI sections in the Amiga and Atari ST Arts forums. The latter is a full Music/MIDI forum. The Coin/Stamp/Collectibles Forum has a section for music collectors. CompuServe's RockNet forum has the following structure:
Available message sections: Available file libraries:0 General/Misc. 0 General Misc1 Rock Music 1 Rock Music2 Rock Radio 2 Rock Radio3 Reviews/LK 3 Reviews4 Q&A/Help 4 Q&A/Help5 Rock Film & Video 5 Rock Film & Video6 RockLetters 6 RockLetters7 Trends 7 Trends8 Heavy Metal 8 Heavy Metal9 Old Wave 9 Old Wave10 New Music 10 New Music11 CD Hotline 11 Compact Discs12 Green, Village 12 Graphics/Programs
You can tailor your visits to RockNet to your personal interests. If you're into Heavy Metal, limit your readings of messages to those in section 8, and possibly 3 and 7. The Music and Performing Arts Forum (GO MUSICARTS) is another interesting place on CompuServe. Converse with fellow music fans about on topics like classical, jazz/blues, Big Band, country/folk and religious music, ballet/dance, drama and more. MIDI is discussed on several bulletin boards, including in conferences distributed by RelayNet. Classical music forums can be found on most larger services. Try CLASSM-L on LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BITNET. For jazz, try the ILINK conference JAZZ, rec.music.bluenote on Usenet, MILES on LISTSERV@HEARN.NIC.SURFNET.NL (about Miles Davis), or BLUES-L at LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU . Another jazz oriented list, SATURN on LISTSERV@HEARN.BITNET, is for discussing the free-jazz big band leader, Sun Ra. Network-Audio-Bits is an electronic magazine bringing reviews and information about rock, pop, new age, jazz, funk, folk music and other genres. (Write Murph@Maine.BITNET to join.) The Music Newsletter offers reviews and interviews. Subscribe by email to LISTSERV@VM.MARIST.EDU using the command "SUBSCRIBE UPNEWS Your-full-name."
| On BITNET mailing lists, you subscribe by using the command |
| "SUB
To get the "Music List of Lists," an overview of music oriented mailing lists, send email to mlol-request@wariat.org . GRIND (write grind-request@unh.edu) focuses on discussions about grindcore/death metal/heavy thrash music. PRIMUS is about the funk/rock band Primus (write to primus-request@unh.edu). KLARINET (on LISTSERV@VCCSCENT.BITNET) is a network bringing news, information, research and teaching items of interest, and other related information for clarinet players, teachers, students, and enthusiasts. "Backstreets" on UUCP is for those who love the music of Bruce Springsteen (backstreets-request@virginia.edu). "Eclipse" (eclipse- request@beach.cis.ufl.edu) focuses on Pink Floyd and his music. If a fan of Jimi Hendrix, join "hey-joe" (hey-joe-request@ms.uky.edu). In "brass," the topic is brass band music (write to brass- request@geomag.gly.fsu.edu for access). "J-Pop" (jpop-request@wystan.bsd.uchicago.edu via UUCP) has discussions about Japanese pop/rock of today.
Wine and food ——————- Some people would rather fill their stomachs than their ears. They call CompuServe for the Cooks Online forum (for gourmets) and the Bacchus Wine Forum (for their throats). BITNET has the mailing list "Eat" (EAT-L@VTVM2), a club for FoodLore/Recipe Exchange. In J-FOOD-L (J-FOOD-L@JPNKNU10 on BITNET) they discuss Japanese food and culture. If your interest is more academic, subscribe to FOODWINE (on LISTSERV@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU). It is for those seriously interested in the academic study of food and its accompaniments in the 1990's, including a variety of disciplines, such as marketing, communications, hospitality, consumer affairs, hotel and catering management. Usenet has rec.food.cooking, rec.food.recipes, rec.food.drink, rec.food.restaurants, and rec.food.veg for vegetarians. On FidoNet, check out INTERCOOK for words of wisdom on International Cooking. On ILINK and RelayNet, look for CUISINE. That is where we found the following recipe for Mexican Meatloaf:
2 lb Ground Beef1 ea Bell Pepper, Diced10 1/2 oz Cream Chicken Soup10 oz Cheddar Cheese4 oz Green Chilies, Diced1 ea Onion, Chopped8 oz Taco Sauce1 pk Tortillas4 oz Mushrooms (fresh optional)2 ea Jalapen"'s (to taste)
1. Brown ground beef and drain.2. Mix onions, green peppers, mushrooms, green CHILIES, tacosauce, jalapen"'s and cream chicken soup into skillet withground beef.3. Simmer until vegetables are soft.4. Shred cheddar cheese.5. In crock pot or dish, layer meat mixture, cheese, andtortillas; heat until cheese melts.
Bon apetit!
Outdoor life——————CompuServe's Great Outdoors SIG is for those preferring nature forthe computer screen. Its sections are called:
General/Photography, Scouting, Power Boating, TROUT UNLIMITED,Fishing, Hunting, Cycling, AUDUBON/Birding, Canoe/Kayak/Raft,Camp/Hike/Walk/RV, Snow Sports/Climb, OWAA, CIS/Computers,Firearms, NRA, Environmnt/Wildlife, OUTDOOR LIFE mag.
If you dream of visiting Alaska to hunt, fish and explore the wilderness by canoe, then this is the place. Add the Outdoor Cooking section of the Cooks Online Forum to make it perfect. Scandinavian bulletin boards exchange the "JAKT_FRILUFT" conference (Through MIX). ILINK offers OUTDOORS, which focuses on outdoor hobbies. As usual, Usenet has a lot. These are some examples:
rec.aviation Aviation rules, means, and methods.rec.backcountry Activities in the Great Outdoors.rec.bicycles Bicycles, related products and laws.rec.birds Hobbyists interested in bird watching.rec.boats Hobbyists interested in boating.rec.boats.paddle Talk about any boats with oars, paddles,etc.rec.climbing Climbing techniques, competitionannouncements, etc.
Scouts participate in SCOUTER on FidoNet (International SCOUTING Conference) and SCOUTS-L (SCOUTS-L@NDSUVM1) on BITNET. Golfers meet in GOLF-L (on LISTSERV@ubvm.bitnet). Photo enthusiasts will track down PHOTO-L@BUACCA.BITNET, CompuServe's Photography Forum and its SCUBA Forum's sections for underwater photography. For more, there's "Photography" on EXEC-PC and The Well, PHOTO on RelayNet, PHOTOSIG on ILINK and rec.photo on Usenet. If you're into 3-d (stereo) photography, enroll in "3d" on UUCP:
Contact: 3d-request@bfmny0.bfm.com (Tom Neff) Purpose: Discussion of 3-D (stereo) photography. General info, hints, experiences, equipment, techniques, and stereo "happenings." Anyone interested is welcome to join.
There are clubs for all popular outdoor hobbies.
Roots ——- On ROOTS-L@NDSUVM1.BITNET and soc.roots on Usenet, the emphasis is on genealogy. Here, you'll get tips about tools and techniques. You can exchange information about ancestors and find new friends and partners for joint research. On CompuServe, it is called The Genealogy Forum. One message section is called Overseas Ancestry. Remember to check out the Family History Library, a newsletter bringing news from the library for genealogical research in Salt Lake City, U.S.A. (stored in Library 10.) The North American bulletin boards ROOTS-BBS (San Francisco) and THE FAMILY ROOTS (Oklahoma) are connected to FidoNet. GEnie has the Genealogy Knowledgebase. FidoNet has
GENDATA Genealogy DatabaseGENEALOGY:_WGW Who's Got What (WGW) Data BaseGENSOFT Genealogy softwareSE_GENEALOGY South Eastern US Genealogy Conference
Since FidoNet has links all over the world, these conferences can give contacts in countries that you might otherwise have problems in reaching. On most of these services, you'll find interesting genealogy programs and files with practical hints about how to write a book about your family.
Him and Her —————- Members of the female sex have their favorite meeting places, like Cleopatra on Bergen By Byte. Men do not have admission. Usenet has soc.feminism. Those with limited access to Usenet, may subscribe to "feminism-digest." Send email to feminism- digest@ncar.ucar.edu to get on the mailing list.
"Contact feminism-digest@ncar.ucar.edu" above means that you need to write a message to this Internet email address with a subscription request, or to receive further information about how to join. This mailing list does not have automatic subscriptions.
To join the mailing list "feminists," write Patricia Collins on collins@hplabs.hp.com . She presents the conference's purpose in this way:
The feminist mailing list is intended to provide a forum for discussion of issues of interest to women, in a friendly atmosphere. The basic tenets of feminism and the day-to-day experiences of women do not have to be explained or defended. Men and women can join, but everyone requesting to be added to the mailing list MUST provide the moderator with: (1) a full name; (2) a complete UUCP path to a well-known host or a fully specified Internet address; (3) the correspondent's gender (for records and statistics only). NO exceptions.
While we're at it, let's move on to other topics associated with the term sex: Bisexuals can participate in "sappho" on UUCP. Contact sappho-request@mc.lcs.mit.edu. On BITNET, you'll find BIFEM-L (BIFEM-L@BROWNVM), BISEXU-L (BISEXU-L@BROWNVM) and others. Spanish speaking users can subscribe to ARENAL (Lista de discussion para hispanos/as que desean acabar con la homofobia). Subscribe by email to LISTSERV@LUT.FI . Usenet has tons of it: soc.motss, alt.politics.homosexuality, alt.sex.bestiality, alt.sex, alt.sex.bondage, alt.sex.pictures.d, clari.news.group.gays, alt.sex.pictures, alt.sex.motss, clari.feature.kinsey (Sex Q&A and Advice from Kinsey Institute), clari.news.law.crime.sex and clari.news.sex. Conferences called "SEXUALITY" are alive on FidoNet and The Well. CompuServe has a Human Sexuality Adult Forum and a Human Sexuality Open Forum. STOPRAPE@BROWNVM.BITNET is a Sexual Assault Activist List. Finally, there are a large number of pictures of nudes in all possible and impossible positions. Most of them are childish, some are decidedly pornographic, a few are beautiful and erotic. The online services' policies vary about what kind of pictures and picture programs to make available. The larger the service, the more conservative they tend to be.
Programs for hobbyists ——————————— It's no rule that a service need to have a conference about a hobby, to have interesting programs available for downloading. Programs float around from service to service much easier than conference items. Still, the best programs for a given hobby are normally found on services where hobbyists meet to discuss. You will find:
Chess and bridge programs,Morse code training programs for ham amateurs,Astrology programs,Data base systems for keeping track of music cassettes orrecords, video cassettes, books, stamps, coins, etc.Information systems for wine lovers,Recipe programs (tell me what you've got, and I'll tellyou what you can make), and much more.
Online shopping ———————- You can buy almost anything online: video cameras, books, music, Bonsai plants, golf equipment, canned cakes from Gimmee Jimmy's Cookies, Levi's trousers for men, computer equipment, a four-door Nissan Pathfinder SE-V6 car, and air tickets for Mexico. Shoppers who let their modem do the "walking" are already a few steps ahead of people Still stuck shopping the old-fashioned way. Experienced online shoppers know that you can tap a world of stores without ever leaving your keyboard, and that you can browse and buy with very little effort. Some services present their wares "for your information only." It's like reading newspaper ads. You must contact the seller to buy. Other services have large online supermarkets with many stores, and you can by while you visit. Subscribers to CompuServe get a monthly magazine by mail. "Go Mall Shoppers' Guide" is a regular insert with color photos and descriptions of selected products. Type GO MALL, order a product, enter your credit card number, and have it sent you by mail. What if used goods are good enough? ILINK, the international conference exchange system, has GARAGESALE. Here you can buy and sell for hobby or home: Photo, video, audio, sound/music and midi equipment, and all kinds of other domestic items. ILINK also has a conference called BUY-SELL. HAM-SALE on the FidoNet is for ham amateurs wanting to swap, by or sell. The American computer magazine PC Week is operating a Buyer's Forum on CompuServe. UUCP's "muscle-cars" is where "muscle car" enthusiasts offer advice, share problems and solutions, discuss technical issues, racing, buying or selling parts, cars, or services, or just discuss cars and swap stories with others. (Contact: muscle-cars- request@sorinc.PacBell.COM). Similar experiences are waiting for you in "BMW" (Write: bmw- request@sol.crd.ge.com), "british-cars" (Write: british-cars- request@encore.com), "italian-cars" (Write: italian-cars- request@sol.crd.ge.com) and "Z-cars" (the topic is Z-cars from Datsun/Nissan. Write: rsiatl!z-car-request). Vintage VW (at VintageVW@rocky.er.usgs.gov) is about Vintage Volkswagens. This includes the Beetle, Bus (Types II and II/IV), Ghia, Squareback, Kubelwagen (Thing), bajas, buggies, Schwimmwagen, rails and any VW (air-cooled) powered vehicle including aircraft. Beginners, gurus, mechanics and non-mechanics, restorers and daily drivers are welcomed. This is where you can discuss how-to stuff, parts availability, answer mechanical questions, list show dates, swap meets, club addresses, favorite stories, etc. To subscribe, send a message to robert@whiplash.er.usgs.gov . The newsletter NEWSBYTES brings you regular reports about prices on used computers from The Boston Computer Exchange (BOCO). The newsletter is available through GEnie, ZiffNet on CompuServe, NewsNet, Dialog, and others. ZiffNet also offers the Computer Directory, an online encyclopedia with information about more than 75,000 hardware and software products sold in North America (1993). The data base is updated monthly.
Planning your holidays ——————————— CompuServe invites you to read reviews of theater performances, books, movies and restaurants, opera, symphonies, ballets, dance, museums and art galleries. They have information about airline schedules and prices, hotels and the latest ski weather forecast. Televerket's Datatorg in Norway offers air tickets and hotel reservations through SMART LINK, a self-serve system operated by the Norwegian travel agencies. Entertainment and travel are also popular on Prestel. Most British tour operators have an "office" there. Several international services, including CompuServe and Dow Jones News/Retrieval, offer OAG (The Official Airline Guide) and Eaasy Sabre (the American Airlines reservation system). Worldscan/Travel shopper is on CompuServe and Delphi. The Travel Forum on CompuServe administers a member travel discount program. Download HOTEL.SAV in Library 0 for information about lower rates on hotel room and car-rental rates. It's often possible to book hotel rooms and rent cars online. Travelshopper has a built-in hotel guide, searchable by city around the world. OAG has a database of over 40,000 hotels worldwide (1992). It has the AA Rated European Hotels & Restaurants menu, which covers trips from Andorra to Yugoslavia. Accu-Weather provides three-day weather forecasts for 450 cities worldwide, updated hourly. Travel agents are also operative through the Internet. One alternative is at TRAVEL@delphi.com . Telnet lib.dartmouth.edu for a World Factbook on countries. Is this your first visit to Japan? Why not prepare your visit through the online service TWICS in Tokyo. It presents itself like this:
"Japan is an island nation, full of communities in villages,towns, and cities squeezed in between the mountains and the sea,with ports of various sizes and shapes through which communicationflows between communities.
Our own online community is organized in the same terms, anisland community "BEEJIMA" (Bee Island), with our village("MURA"), a port ("MINATO"), and our very own volcanic mountain("YAMA").
In the village, there is a village office ("YAKUBA"), a community meeting place ("YORIAI"), a high-tech corner ("AKIHABARA") named after the famous electronics district in Tokyo, a health center ("EMEDICA"), a place to hang around and read things ("HON YA"), a school ("GAKKOU"), and a market ("ICHIBA"). The port has holding areas and leads to other parts of Japan ("NIPPON") and the world ("SEKAI"). The mountain has a hot springs ("ONSEN") recreational area, and a lively outdoor bath ("IN THE OFURO") which has become the social center of our island.
Add to this soc.culture.japan on Usenet, the BITNET discussion listJAPAN@NDSUVM1, the Japan Forum on CompuServe, and "JAPAN" onRelayNet.Did you say the former "Soviet Union?" Here are phone numbersto some "local" bulletin board systems:
Moscow Fair (Moscow): +7 095 366 5209SUEARN NIC BBS (Moscow): +7 095 938 3618Kreit BBS (Leningrad): +7 812 112 2611Amber Way BBS (Vilnius, Lithuania): +7 012 222 7194UFO BBS (Riga, Latvia): +7 013 232 3983Post Square #1 (Kiev, Ukrain): +7 044 417 5700
BITNET club TRAVEL-L (TRAVEL-L@TREARN) for those interested in tourism. ILINK and The Well have conferences under the name TRAVEL. Many conferences in online land concentrate on particular parts of the world. BALT-L@UBVM.BITNET is focusing on the Baltic states. In AFRICA-L@BRUFPB.BITNET they discuss Africa. On Usenet, the news group is called soc.culture.african. To brush up your Portuguese, consider joining BRAS-NET, It is a Brazilian mailing list/network. Send your subscription request to bras-net-request@cs.ucla.edu . For general information about other Brazilian interest groups, write LISTSERV@FAPQ.FAPESP.BR . For those who are into Spanish, why not check out CHILE-L (at LISTSERV@USACHVM1.BITNET), or FOLLAC, a mailing list about 'Folklore Latino, Latinoamericano y Caribeno'. To join, write Emily Socolov at owner-follac@ccwf.cc.texas.edu . Here are some other African sources: the French language Algeria News List (ALGNEWS) is on LISTSERV@gwuvm.gwu.edu. TUNISNET (on LISTSERV@psuvm.psu.edu) is The Tunisia Network. EGYPT-NET (write: egypt-net-request@das.harvard.edu) is the Egypt Discussion and News forum. Send mail to mcgee@epsilon.eecs.nwu.edu to get a list of Internet/Bitnet mailing lists that focus on African, African- American, African-Caribbean or African-Latin issues, and a list of African information sites. In the soc.culture hierarchy on Usenet, you'll find area codes like asian, african, arabic, asean, australian, bangladesh, british, canada, china, celtic, europe, filipino, french, german, greek, hongkong, indian, iranian, italian, jewish, korean, latin- american, lebanon, magyar, nepal, new-zealand, nordic, pakistan, polish, soviet, spain, sri-lanka, taiwan, thai, turkish, vietnamese and yugoslavia. In "argentina," you can read about how to make empanadas while sharpening up your Spanish before visiting Buenos Aires. (Contact: argentina-request@ois.db.toronto.edu). CompuServe's Travel Forum has sections called United States, Canada, Mexico/Central America, Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Asia, Europe, Africa/Middle East and Hawaii. If you're off to London, check out the UK Travel section in CompuServe's UK Computing Forum. Its library contains files with tips about affordable hotels, British road signs, and a list of London theatre shows with ticket-buying tips. If your destination is Germany, practice Deutch in the Deutches Forum (GO GERNET). Search for additional background information using CompuServe's Magazine Database Plus, if you don't mind paying a wee surcharge. Look up places to stay in the ABC Worldwide Hotel Listing. On America Online, you can research National Geographic and National Geographic Traveler Magazines online. You can look up your destination in the electronic Comptons Encyclopedia. GEnie has a Japan RoundTable and a Deutchland RoundTable. Both provide for interaction with users from those respective countries. If you are responsible for your company's business travels, check out the following newsletters on NewsNet: BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS, and TOUR & TRAVEL NEWS. (You can also search NewsNet's newsletters through CompuServe's IQuest, Dialog, and others). NewsNet has searchable newsletters focusing on the conditions in particular countries or parts of the world (news, travel and political risk analysis, political stability, etc.).
Politics ———— Many of these conferences and forums are filled to the brim with political discussions. For information about the United Nations, subscribe to UN (on LISTSERV@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU).
House, garden and finances ————————————— FidoNet has a long list of interesting conferences:
HOME-N-GRDN Home and Garden QuestionsHOMEAUT Home AutomationHOMESCHL Homeschooling supportHOME_IMP Improvements around the house.HOME_OFFICE Home OfficeHOME_REPAIR Home Repair and RemodellingZYMURGY Beer Homebrewing
The EXEC-PC BBS has "Home Repair." The FUTUREHOME TECHNOLOGY NEWS newsletter is available through NewsNet. On ILINK, you will find the HOMEGARDEN conference. Usenet has misc.consumers.house . Here they discuss anything related to owning and maintaining a house. On the Well, check out "Homeowners." In Ziff-Davis' Magazine Database Plus you can search and read articles from the Good Housekeeping Magazine. This full-text article database is available from CompuServe and other services. Through UUCP you can get to the conference "Antiques" (Contact: antiques-request@swbatl.sbc.com). CompuServe also has the Gardening Forum. It is operated by the National Gardening Association, which publishes National Gardening magazine. The various services' software libraries contain many great shareware and public domain programs. You can download software that will help you prepare tax return forms, plan next year's taxes, calculate interests and down-payments on your loans. You'll find double-entry money-managing systems for non-accountants that will help you with personal bookkeeping and checkbook balancing. Other programs will help you plan and maintain your house. There are personal inventory programs (to help you keep track of belongings), and programs that can help you plan allocation of the space in your home. . . Join CompuServe's Investors Forum to learn how to play the stock and money markets, and other moneymaking 'instruments'. Discuss investment techniques with others, read reports about economical trends, and retrieve useful programs for your personal computer. RelayNet offers the international conference INVESTOR. Usenet has misc.invest . If you want to adopt a child, check out ADOPTION on FidoNet, or subscribe to a UUCP conference of the same name. For access, write adoption-request@think.com . The National Issues Forum on CompuServe has a message section called "Adoption Today." Addicted TV-viewers may be interested in alt.tv.twin-peaks or alt.tv.muppets on Usenet. "Mystery" on FidoNet and UUCP is for those preferring mystery novels by the fire place in the living room. There are even offerings for "the perfect house wife." I can think of no better pastime than origami, the traditional Japanese art of folding paper. (Contact: origami-request@cs.utexas.edu on UUCP). Oh, I almost forgot: The BONSAI conference is essential (on LISTSERV@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU). This is where to discuss the art and craft of Bonsai and related art forms. Bonsai is the Oriental Art of miniaturizing trees and plants into forms that mimic nature.
Education, teaching and the exchange of knowledge ————————————————————————- The list of conferences, forums, clubs, and other services focusing on education - in its broadest meaning of the word - is long. You are offered online courses, workshops, and seminars for students of all ages, databases to help you select a school for yourself or your kids, and all kinds of discussion forums for educators. Usenet, BITNET, Internet, and UUCP have long traditions in education. You'll find offerings for teachers within all subject areas, from finance and accounting, through history, languages and geography to technical subjects on all levels. Two guides listing forums of interest to Educators can be retrieved by anonymous FTP from the pub/ednet directory at nic.umass.edu . Use the following commands (see "FTP by email" at the end of Chapter 12):
get educatrs.lst get edusenet.gde
KIDSPHERE (subscribe through JOINKIDS@vms.cis.pitt.edu) is a discussion forum for teachers of students from the age of kindergarten through high school and higher. This is a selection of other BITNET discussion lists to suggest the span of topics:
CHEMED-L (CHEMED-L@UWF) Chemistry Education DiscussionCHRONICL (CHRONICL@USCVM) On-Line Chronicle of Higher EdCIVIL-L (CIVIL-L@UNBVM1) Civil Engineering Research & Ed.COMLAW-L (COMLAW-L@UALTAVM) Computers and Legal EducationDRUGABUS (DRUGABUS@UMAB) Drug Abuse Education InformationJOURNET (JOURNET@QUCDN) Discussion List for Journalism EdMEDIA-L (MEDIA-L@BINGVMB) Media in EducationMULTI-L (MULTI-L@BARILVM) Language and Education in Multi-Lingual SettingsMUSIC-ED (MUSIC-ED@UMINN1) MUSIC-ED Music EducationPANET-L (PANET-L@YALEVM) Medical Education and Health InfoTAG-L (TAG-L@NDSUVM1) TAG-L Talented and Gifted EdWORLD-L (WORLD-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU)Non-Eurocentric World History
Here are some Usenet conferences:
comp.edu Computer science educationsci.edu The science of educationcomp.ai.edu Applications of Artificial Intelligence toEducation
There are many similar offerings on the commercial services andfree bulletin boards.K12Net is a decentralized network for schools available onFidoNet and Usenet. Write janet.murray@f23.n105.z1.fidonet.org forinformation.FidoNet also has
A_THEIST A_Theism Education and EnlightenmentHIGH_ED Education, Post SecondaryHISTORY International HistoryMAC_GAMES Macintosh Entertainment & Education
CompuServe has 12 forums focusing on education. Among these you'llfind the Disabilities Forum, Computer Training Forum, EducationForum, Education Research forum, Science/Math Educational Forum,Foreign Language Forum, LOGO and Students Forum.Ken and Carrie Loss-Cutler are coordinating the section forHome/Alternative Education in CompuServe's Education Forum. Theyeducate their two children at home instead of sending them to apublic school.The Foreign Language Forum has the sections Potpourri/Polyglot,Spanish/Portuguese, French, German/Germanic, Latin/Greek, Slavic/E.European, English, East Asian, Esperanto, Others, FL Education,Translators, Computers/CAI-CALL, The Directory, Jobs/Careers, NewUploads and Using the Forum.If you're into reading/writing the African language Kiswahili(Swahili), write kuntz@macc.wisc.edu to get onto the SWAHILI-Lmailing list.The more occupational oriented forums include CommunicationsIndustry Forum, Environmental Forum, Firenet (for volunteer firebrigades), Industrial Hygiene Forum, AAMSI Medical Forum, ASCMDForum, HealthNet, OP-Net Forum, the MICRO MD Network, Legal SIG,Aviation SIG, CB Society and CEMSIG (computers and electronics).Bergen By Byte has the Norwegian language conference Schools.This conference is for validated users only.
| There are many private conferences in the online world. All | | conferences referred to in this book are open for anybody to | | join, unless explicitly told to be private. |
RelayNet has EDUCATION. NewsNet offers the newsletters EDUCATION DAILY, and the HELLER REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY. Many online services (including schools and universities) offer students accredited courses by modem. Connected Education at the New School for Social Research in the United States is one example, as is the University of Phoenix in Arizona. (Ask in CompuServe's Education Forum for more information.) The EDUPAGE newsletter is a twice-weekly summary of news items on information technology, provided by a consortium of colleges and universities "seeking to transform education through the use of information technology." Compact and informative. I like it. To subscribe, send a note to edupage@educom.edu with your name, institution name and email address. (EDUPAGE is also available for Gopher, WAIS and anonymous FTP access on EDUCOM's host machine, educom.edu .) INFOBITS (at listserv@gibbs.oit.unc.edu) is a monthly service reporting from a number of information and instruction technology sources. The Internet Resource Directory for Educators is available by anonymous FTP from tcet.unt.edu in the pub/telecomputing-info/IRD subdirectory. File names include:
IRD-telnet-sites.txt (226KB ASCII text)IRD-ftp-archives.txt ( 73KB)IRD-listservs.txt (201KB)IRD-infusion-ideas.txt (202KB)
Example: KIDLINK ———————— Many parents and teachers regard the online world as a learning opportunity for their kids. Some of them turn to KIDLINK, a global service for children between 10 - 15 years of age. The service is operated by a grassroots network of volunteers. The objective is to get as many children as possible involved in a global dialog. Participation is free. Before joining the discussion, however, each child must respond to the following four questions:
1. Who am I?2. What do I want to be when I grow up?3. How do I want the world to be better when I grow up?4. What can I do Now to make this come true?
The kids can write in any language. Most answers are sent through the Internet to a large online database in North America. Anyone with an email connection to the Internet can search this database at will. When they have submitted their responses, they are invited to 'meet' the others in several KIDCAFEs. The cafes are split up by language. Here, they can discuss anything from pop music to how it is to live in other countries. KIDLINK grew from an idea in 1990 to over 10,000 participating children in 50 countries by May 1993. Schools all over the globe are integrating KIDLINK with their classes in languages, geography, history, environment, art, etc. To the kid participant, KIDCAFE may be the beginning of a personal network of international friends. For more information, send mail to LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU with the following command in the TEXT of your message:
Your personal network ——————————- Network is a word with many meanings. It can be a system set up to transport data from one computer to another. It can be an online service with many conferences, and a friendly connection between people (like in "old boys' network"). Here, we use it in the latter meaning of the word. We use our personal networks more than most of us think of. We have a chain of people that we call on to ask for advice, help, and who we invite to participate in projects or parties. When they ask us for assistance, we lend a hand. The online world has some interesting characteristics. One is that most participants in online conferences already have received so much help from others that they feel obliged to pay back. They do this by helping others. Those who help, know that helping others will be rewarded. The reward, however, may not come directly from the persons that they help. They contributions help maintain and develop the online world as one giant personal network. A typical example: I wanted to buy a 425 megabyte hard disk for my Toshiba 5100 personal computer. I discover the existence of such a drive, when a user told about his experiences in CompuServe's Toshiba Forum. Before placing an order, I wrote to check if he was still satisfied with the disk. The happy user did more than reply. He told about other sellers and offered to help out with return shipment of my computer when done. He made it clear that he had no financial interest in the companies selling the upgrade. We had no previous contact with each other. The online world is full of similar examples. The list of what people do to help others is very, very long. In most conferences and forums you get help, just like that. There is always someone prepared to help. Still, the best long range strategy to build chances of getting help when you need it, is to be visually present in conferences, that matter to you. 'Being visually present' means that you should contribute in the discussions and help others as much as you can. The p o s i t i v e contributors get a lot of friends and a disproportional amount of help from others. That is all it takes to build a personal network. One day you may need it. It will give you an incredible advantage. I have seen people get jobs, partners and clients through such contacts. The online world is full of opportunities.