send guide
For a list of books, add the line
send gutenberg catalog
Among the offerings, you'll find The Complete Sherlock HolmesMysteries, The Unabridged Works of Shakespeare, Aesop's Fables,Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Holy Bible, The LoveTeachings of Kama Sutra, The Holy Koran, The Oedipus Trilogy(Sophocles), Peter Pan, Roget's Thesaurus (1911), and The WorldFact Book (1990 - CIA).If quite impossible to locate a given book, try the Rare Booksand Special Collections Forum at EXLIBRIS@RUTVM1.BITNET.Non-Chinese speaking people will probably classify Chinesepoems as 'rare'. Many of them are impossible to read, unless yourcomputer can handle the special characters, and you know theirmeaning.Still interested? If yes, subscribe to CHPOEM-L@UBVM.BITNET .Be prepared to use your Big5 and GuoBiao utilities.
We must be willing to risk change to keep apace with rapidchange.
The key is moderation and balance, supported by sufficientinformation to allow meaningful feedback.
It requires adaption by management and staff in developingthe necessary skills and vision.
This chapter starts with how to use the networks to manage projects. Next, it treats how to monitor competitors, prospects, suppliers, markets, technologies, and trends. It winds down with marketing and sales by modem.
Project coordination —————————— So far we have mainly been looking at sources of information. Let us start this chapter with some words about 'online conference rooms' for project coordination. Several services offer rental of private conference areas to businesses. Corporations have discovered them to be an efficient way of coordinating a group of people, who are far apart from each other geographically. They are also useful when team members are constantly on the move and hard to gather face to face. Many international companies use such services regularly. The applications are different. They range from tight coordination with suppliers and subcontractors, to development of company strategies and new organizational structures. Renting an online conference room has advantages over doing it in-house. The company does not have to buy software, hardware, expensive equipment for communications, and hire people for to run and maintain a conferencing system. The more international the business, the better. For ideas about how to set up and operate a coordination conference. Study how volunteer organizations do it. One place to check out is KIDPLAN, one of several coordination conferences used by KIDLINK (see Chapter 2 and 5). KIDPLAN is usually most active during April and May each year. This is when their annual projects are being closed down, and new projects are started. Read the dialog between coordinators to get an idea of how the medium is being used. Old conference messages are stored in notebook files. You can therefore have the full coordination dialogs sent you by email. Send all requests for notebook files to
Getting notebook files is a two-step process. In your first message to the LISTSERV, ask for a list of available files. Do this by using the following command in your email:
The LISTSERV will return a list of files. The following part is of particular interest:
101/2/ KIDPLAN LOG9105B ALL OWN V 80 2397 91/05/1423:40:22 Started on Wed, 8 May 91 00:11:09 CDT102/2/ KIDPLAN LOG9105C ALL OWN V 80 3141 91/05/2120:44:16 Started on Wed, 15 May 91 01:24:51 CDT104/2/ KIDPLAN LOG9105D ALL OWN V 80 2685 91/05/2822:34:31 Started on Wed, 22 May 91 17:01:21 +0200
Don't bother about the details. You just want file names, anddates. The file LOG9105B contains all messages from 8 May 1991until 15 May.If you want all these three files, send another message toLISTSERV with the following lines:
The files will be forwarded to your mailbox. Note: Some mailbox services have restrictions on the size of incoming mail. This may prevent you from receiving large notebook files. If this happens, contact your local postmaster for help. Some email systems are unable to forward your return-address correctly to LISTSERV. If you suspect that this is the reason for lack of success, try the following commands:
GIVE KIDPLAN LOG9105B TO Your-Correct-Return-AddressGIVE KIDPLAN LOG9105C TO Your-Correct-Return-AddressGIVE KIDPLAN LOG9105D TO Your-Correct-Return-Address
Making it work ——————— Making online conferences and task force meetings work, can be a challenge. Most of the dialog is based on the written word. The flow of information can be substantial thus causing an information overload for some participants. To overcome this, many companies appoint moderator-organizers for their online conferences. This person:
Adds value by setting agendas; summarizing points; getting the discussion(s) back on track; moving on to the next point; mediating debate; maintaining address and member lists; acting as general sparkplug/motivator to keep things flowing by making sure that contributions are acknowledged, relevant points are noted, new members are welcomed, silent "Read-Only Members" are encouraged to participate, and the general atmosphere is kept appropriate to the goals of the conference/task force meeting.
Great online conferences don't just happen. Hard work is required. A few people must be responsible for getting the meetings fired up and keep the discussion rolling. The meeting's organization may depend on the number of participants, where they come from, the exclusivity of the forum, and the purpose of the "meeting." In large meetings, with free access for outsiders, the best strategy may be to appoint a Moderator-Editor. This person
Filters contributions, gathers new information, summarizes scattered contributions, does background research.
Filtering may be needed in conferences that are open to customers and media. The main purpose, however, is to help participants cope with the absolute flow of information. A conference can have an educational purpose. If so, you may bring in someone who can add value by bringing experience and expertise to the group. You will also need someone to do all the dirty jobs everyone expects to be done - but never notices until they are not done. This person must keep the show running by serving as a benevolent tyrant, sheriff, judge, mediator, general scapegoat, and by playing a role in setting the general policy and atmosphere of the meeting. Now, back to the 'normal' applications of the online resource.
Monitoring what others do ————————————- The best business opportunities are outside your company, in the external world. We need to monitor customers and markets, find technologies to help develop and build products, research new business actions, find new subcontractors and suppliers, people to hire, and persons to influence to boost sales. In this marketing age, where sales calls cost hundreds of dollars and business-to-business marketers use the telephone or the mails to reach prospects, complete and accurate market lists are most valuable commodities. There are many other questions: What are our most important customers and their key people doing? What new products are they promoting? Who are their joint-venture partners? What else may influence their willingness to buy from us? What prices are our major suppliers offering other buyers? Should we get other sources for supplies? What major contracts have they received recently? Will these influence their ability to serve our needs? What new technologies are available now and how are they being used by others? Threats are the reverse side of opportunities. What are our competitors doing? What products and services have they launched recently? Are they successful? What are our competitors' weaknesses and strengths? What relationships do they maintain with our most important customers? How is their customer support functioning, and what methods are they using in their quality assurance? Each company has its own priorities when it comes to watching the external environment. The information needs are different from company to company, depending on what products and services that are offered, the technological level of the company, the markets that they address, and more. Needs and priorities also differ by department and person, for example depending on whether a user is the president, a marketing manager, product manager, sales man, or has a position in finance or production. Remember your priorities when going online to search. You cannot possibly capture and digest all information that is there. Your basic problem remains to find the right information in the right form at the right time.
Build your own, local 'database' ———————————————— It does not take much effort to check one hundred different topics from multiple online sources on a daily basis. The computer will do it for you. Also, you do not have to read all stories as carefully as you would with printed material. Most experienced users just read what is important now, and save selected parts of the retrieved texts on their hard disks for later reference. We handle printed material differently. Most of us make notes in the margins, underline, use colors, cut out pages and put into folders. These tricks are important, since it is so hard to find information in a pile of papers. Not so with electronic information. With the right tools, you can locate information on your computer's hard disk in seconds. In seven seconds, I just searched the equivalent of 2000 pages of printed text for all occurrences of the combined search words 'SONY' and 'CD-ROM'! My tool was the shareware program LOOKFOR (see Chapter 14). It searched through 4.2 megabyte on my 80486-based notebook computer. If you use an indexing program, the search may be completed even faster. I guess you can see it coming. My personal databases usually give more direct value during my working day, than what I have on paper, and have available online. My hard disks contain megabytes of texts retrieved from various online services, but only what I have decided to keep. This private database therefore contains more relevant information per kilobyte than the online databases I'm using. Searching the data often gives enough good hits to keep me from going online for more.
| I repeat: You will often get better results when searching your | | own subset of selected online databases, than by going online | | to get information. It is usually easier and faster. |
On the other hand, your in-house database will never be fully up- to-date. Too many things happen all the time. Also, the search terms used for your daily intake of news will never cover all future needs. Occasionally, you must go online to get additional information for a project, a report, a plan. Updating your database means going online often to find new supplementary information.
| Regular monitoring gives the highest returns, and is required | | if you want to have an edge over your competitors. |
For beginners, the best strategy will often be to start with the general, and gradually dig deeper into industry specific details. Let us now review some good hunting grounds for information, and how to use them.
Clipping the news ————————- Several online services offer 'clipping services'. They select the news that you want - 24 hours a day - from a continuous stream of stories from newspapers, magazines, news agencies and newsletters. Several services make news immediately available, when they have been received by satellite. The delay previously used to protect the interests of print media is disappearing quickly. Online services usually deliver news sooner than in print media, radio or TV. You select stories by giving the online service a set of search terms. The hits are then sent to your electronic mailbox, for you to retrieve at will. 'Clipping' gives an enormous advantage. Few important details escape your attention, even when you cannot go online daily. The stories will stay in your mailbox until you have read them.
'Clipping' on CompuServe ———————————— CompuServe's Executive News Service (ENS) monitor more than 8,000 stories daily. They use sources like Deutsche Press-Agentur, Kyodo News Service, TASS, Xinhua News Agency, the Washington Post, OTC News-Alert, Reuters Financial News Wire, Associated Press, UPI and Reuters World Report, IDG PR Service, Inter Press Service (IPS), Middle East News Network and European Community Report. One of them, Reuters, has 1,200 journalists in 120 bureaus all over the world. They write company news reports about revenue, profit, dividend, purchases of other companies, changes in management, and other important items for judging a company's results. They write regular opinions about Industry, Governments, Economics, Leading indicators, and Commerce. Reuters also offers full-text stories from Financial Times and other leading European newspapers. Its Textline is a database with news from some 1,500 publications in over 40 countries. It includes Reuters' own news services, and has translated abstracts of stories from some 17 languages. The database reaches back 10 years and is updated at around one million articles per year. (Textline is also available on Nexis, Data-Star, and Dialog.) Another one, the IDG PR Service, sends out high-tech related news gathered by the staffs of IDG's magazines. InterPress Service covers Third World countries. Middle East News Network integrates the contents of 28 information sources covering this region of the world. The Executive News Service lets you define up to three 'clipping folders'. Supply up to seven 'key phrases' that define your interests. These key phrases will be used when searching stories as they are sent. Hits will be 'clipped' and held in a folder for you to review at your convenience. Each folder can hold 500 stories. When creating a clipping folder, you set an expiration date and specify how many days a clipped story is to be held (maximum 14 days). To browse the contents of a folder, select it from the menu. Stories can be listed by headlines or leads. Select those you want to read, forward to others as email, or copy to another folder. Delete those that you do not need. Defining key phrases is simple. The important thing is not to get too much nor too little. General phrases will give you many unwanted stories while too narrow phrases will cause you to miss pertinent stories. Let me illustrate with an example:
The phrase APPLE COMPUTERS will only clip stories that have the words APPLE and COMPUTERS next to each other. This may be too narrow. Specifying just APPLE or just COMPUTERS would be too broad. Entering APPLE + COMPUTERS is a better phrase since the words can appear anywhere in the story, and not necessarily next to each other.
ENS carries an hourly surcharge of US$15/hour over base connect rates.
Clipping on NewsNet —————————- NewsNet greets users with this opening screen:
————————-- N E W S N E T -————————-W O R K I N G K N O W L E D G E
***New—Electromagnetic Field Litigation Reporter (EY86) tracksdevelopments in every important legal action involvingelectromagnetic radiation from power lines, cellular phones,VTDs, and radar and microwave equipment.
***The title of HH15 has been changed to Cancer ResearcherWeekly. This service was formerly entitled Cancer Weekly.
***Important work in the blood field throughout the world iscovered by Blood Week (HH44), including research, literature,and upcoming events.
***TB Weekly (HH45) is an internationally-focused newsletter that concentrates on tuberculosis-related news and research, including business developments.
New Services on NewsNet:
TB Weekly (HH45)Blood Weekly (HH44)Electromagnetic Field Litigation Reporter (EY86)Chapter 11 Update (FI82)Tobacco Industry Litigation Reporter (HH48)Trade and Development Opportunities (GT50)
For details on new services, enter READ PB99# or HELP followed by the service code.
NewsNet's clipping service, NewsFlash, will automatically search all new editions of newsletters selected for monitoring. The hits will be sent to your mailbox, and be retained there for up to ten weeks besides the current week. Your selection of newsletters can be extended to include news stories from United Press International (UPI), Reuters News Reports, Associated Press, Business Wire, PR Newswire, and others. For some time, I clipped newsletters in the telecommunications group using the keywords 'Victoria' (an American communication project) and 'KDD' (the Japanese telecom giant). When I called NewsFlash to check, it typically reported:
NEWSFLASH NOTIFICATION****************************************************************4 Total Newsflash hits. Use STOP to stop and delete all.New Hits = 4 Saved Items = 0
TE01 7/17/89 == VICTORIA == Headline #1COOKE SELLS CABLE HOLDINGS TO 6-MEMBER GROUP FOR NEARLY $1.6 BILLIONJack Cooke's cable systems will be sold to 6-member consortium
TE11 7/17/89 == VICTORIA == Headline #2BOCs' PROGRESS TOWARD INTELLIGENT NETWORK ARCHITECTURE INTERTWINEDWITH DIFFICULT INTERNETWORKING NEGOTIATIONS, PENDING DECREE COURT
EC89 7/18/89 == KDD == Headline #3KDD OPENS NY/LONDON OFFICESTOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 JUL 14 (NB) — Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD),
EC89 8/22/89 == KDD == Headline #4FOREIGNERS CAN BUY INTO KDDTOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 AUG 17 — The Japanese government is planning
Enter Headline numbers or ALL to read, MORE, AGAIN, SAVE, STOP, or HELP —>
NewsNet's databases grow by more than 400 stories per day. Your search profiles may contain an almost unlimited number of subjects. Delivery of hits is concurrent. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Sprintmail's clipping service (U.S.A.) scans stories from more than 15 international newswires. FT Profile's E-mail Alert searches daily on that particular day's issue of the Financial Times. Dow Jones News/Retrieval has NewsScan (//CLIP). It can deliver by fax or email to a mailbox on another online service. On GEnie, use QuikNews Express, a personalized news clipping service that is integrated with the Quik-Comm System email service. Clarinet, a commercial news service available through Usenet, also has a clipping program.
When clipping is impossible —————————————- Many services do not offer clipping. Here, your alternative is various methods of regular selective reading. Many conferencing systems let you select messages by keywords. BIX has Keyword Indexer. It let you search public conferences after a key word or phrase and report hits. Then it offers you to review (or retrieve) messages of interest. CompuServe's forums have efficient 'read selective' and 'quick scan' commands. Another trick is to limit your reading to specific message sections. The high forum message volume is a special problem on this service. Old messages are regularly deleted to make room for new ones. (Often called "scroll rate.") Some popular forums do not keep messages for more than a couple of days before letting them go. You must visit often to get all new information. Many bulletin boards can be told to store unread messages about given topics in a compressed transportation file. This file can then be retrieved at high speed. Special communication programs (often called offline readers) and commands are available to automate this completely. Powerful scripts (see Chapter 12) can do automatic selection of news stories based on the occurrence of keywords (e.g., a company name) in headlines. I have developed such a system for selecting news from the Online Today magazine on CompuServe.
Subscription services ——————————- It is useful to dig, dig, and dig for occurrences of the same search words, but digging is not enough. Unless you periodically scan "the horizon," you risk missing new trends, viewpoints and other important information. It can be difficult to find good sources of information that suits your needs. One trick is to watch the reports from your clipping services. Over time, you may discover that some sources bring more interesting stories than others. Take a closer look at these. Consider browsing their full index of stories regularly. If your company plans exportation to countries in Asia, check out MARKET: ASIA PACIFIC on NewsNet. The newsletter is published monthly by W-Two Publications, Ltd., 202 The Commons, Suite 401, Ithaca, NY 14850, U.S.A. (phone: +1-607-277-0934). Annual print subscription rate: US$279. The index itself may be a barometer of what goes on. Here is an example. Note the number of Words/Lines. Do these numbers tell a story?
July 1, 1993
Head # Headline Words /Lines——— —————————————————————————— ——————1) THE PHILIPPINES IS AT A TURG POINT 616/782) CHINA AND KOREA WILL LEAD REGIONAL ECONOMIC BOOM 315/413) ASIAN COMPENSATION IS STILL LOW, BUT RISING QUICKLY 303/384) CONSUMER GOODS WON'T BE ALL THE CHINESE BUY 221/295) WOMEN BEAR THE BRUNT OF CAMBODIA'S TROUBLES 284/346) TAIWAN MAKES A MOVE TOWARD THE CASHLESS SOCIETY 243/297) TIPS ON MANAGING CULTURAL HARMONY IN ASIA 264/378) TAIWANESE BECOME MORE DISCERNING, HARDER TO REACH 217/279) DIRECT MARKETING HEADED FOR GROWTH IN SINGAPORE 205/2710) TOURISM IN MALAYSIA WILL GROW 610/7611) CHONGQING: FUTURE POWERHOUSE 2708/342
It is a good idea to visit NewsNet to gather intelligence. Review indexes of potentially interesting newsletters. Save them on your hard disk for future references. You never know when they may be of use. The newsletters within computers and electronics bring forecasts of market trends, evaluation of hardware and software, prices, information about IBM and other leading companies. You will find stories about technological developments of modems, robots, lasers, video players, graphics, and communications software. The Management section contains experts' evaluation of the economical climate with forecasts, information about foreign producers for importers, tips and experiences on personal efficiency, management of smaller companies, and office automation. Other sections are Advertising and Marketing, Aerospace and Aviation, Automotive, Biotechnology, Building and Construction, Chemical, Corporate Communications, Defense, Entertainment and Leisure, Education, Environment, Energy, Finance and Accounting, Food and Beverage, General Business, Insurance, Investment, Health and Hospitals, Law, Management, Manufacturing, Medicine, Office, Publishing and Broadcasting, Real Estate, Research and Development, Social Sciences, Telecommunications, Travel and Tourism, Transport and Shipping. Several newsletters focus on specific geographical areas:
* MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW (Analyzes and evaluates commerciallyavailable marketing research and technology assessment reports.Publisher: High-Tech Publishing Co., U.S.A.)* GERMAN BUSINESS SCOPE and THE WEEK IN GERMANY* NEWS FROM FRANCE* COUNTRY RISK GUIDE: EUROPE* EASTERN EUROPE FINANCE, and EASTERN EUROPEAN ENERGY REPORT* EUROPEAN COMMUNITY: BUSINESS FORECAST* INVESTEXT/EUROPEAN REGION* PRS FORECASTS: EASTERN EUROPE, and WESTERN EUROPE* AFRICA NEWS ON-LINE* PRS-FORECASTS: MID-EAST & NORTH AFRICA* PRS-FORECASTS: SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA* THE EXPORTER (Published by Trade Data Reports. Monthlyreports on the business of exporting. Functionally dividedinto operations, markets, training resources, and worldtrade information.)* MID-EAST BUSINESS DIGEST* LATIN AMERICA OPPORTUNITY REPORT* COUNTRY RISK GUIDE: SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA* COUNTRY RISK GUIDE: ASIA & THE PACIFIC* PRS FORECASTS: ASIA & THE PACIFIC* PRS'S POLITICAL RISK LETTER* SALES PROSPECTOR (Monthly prospect research reports for salesrepresentatives and other business people interested incommercial, and institutional expansion and relocationactivity. Separate services grouped by geographic area inthe United States and Canada.)
Many newsletters are focusing on technology intelligence:
Sensor Technology————————-Provides updates on research being conducted in this rapidlyevolving technology. Besides analyzing advances in the field,it offers ideas on how this technology can improve products andservices.
Advanced Manufacturing Technology ————————————————- Reports on desktop manufacturing, computer graphics, flexible automation, computer-integrated manufacturing, and other technological advances that help increase productivity.
High Tech Materials Alert ————————————- Reports on significant developments in high-performance materials, including alloys, metallic whiskers, ceramic and graphite fibers, and more. Concentrates on their fabrication, industrial applications, and potential markets.
Futuretech—————Provides briefings on focused, strategic technologies thathave been judged capable of making an impact on broadindustrial fronts. Includes forecasts of marketable productsand services resulting from the uncovered technology and itspotential impact on industry segments.
Advanced Coating & Surface Technology, Electronic MaterialsTechnology News, Flame Retardancy News, High Tech Ceramics News,Innovator's Digest, Technology Access Report, Inside R&D, JapanScience Scan, New Technology Week, Optical Materials & EngineeringNews, Performance Materials, Surface Modification Technology News,Genetic Technology News, Battery & Ev Technology, and much more.
Newsletters on CompuServe ————————————- Many newsletters are being made available through forums' file libraries on CompuServe. Consequently, they are a little harder to locate. Some examples (1993):
Abacus Online - Quarterly newsletter on executive computing.(In the Lotus Spreadsheet forum, Library 3.)
Anime Stuff - News and reviews of Japanese animation software.(Comics/Animation Forum, Library 5.)
Communique - The quarterly newsletter of the InternationalAssociation of Business Communicators U.K. Chapter. (PR andMarketing Forum, Library 8.)
Distance Education Newsletter - Analyzes the impact of elec-tronic communication on academic research. (TelecommunicationsForum, Library 13.)
Hint: To find newsletters in the IBM PC oriented forums, enter GO IBMFF to search. Select "Keyword" as search criteria, and enter "newsletter". Add further keywords to narrow the search to your areas of interest. CompuServe also has other file find services.
Databases with an international orientation —————————————————————- Information Access provides reference databases to businesses. You can search 10 databases with full-text stories, abstracts, and indexes from international magazines. PROMPT (Overview of Markets and Technology) is the largest of them. It provides international coverage of companies, markets and technologies in all industries. The other databases cover areas like Aerospace and Defense, Advertising and Marketing, New Product Announcements, Industry Forecasts and Time Series. The Information Access' databases are available through online services like Dialog, Data Star, Financial Times Profile (England), Nikkei in Japan and on the Thomson Financial Networks. They are regularly published on CD-ROM. ZiffNet offers the Business Database Plus through CompuServe. Here, you can search in full-text stories from around 550 North American and international publications for industry and commerce (1993). The articles are about sales and marketing ideas, product news, industry trends and analysis, and provide company profiles in areas such as agriculture, manufacturing, retailing, telecommunications, and trade. This is a partial list of the database's magazines:
Agra Europe, Agribusiness Worldwide, Air Cargo World, Belgium:Economic and Commercial Information, Beverage World, BeverageWorld Periscope Edition, British Plastics & Rubber, BritishTelecom World, Business Perspectives, CCI-Canmaking & CanningInternational, CD-ROM Librarian, Chain Store Age - GeneralMerchandise Trends, Coal & Synfuels Technology, CommunicationWorld, Communications Daily, Communications International,Consultant, Cosmetic World News, Dairy Industries International,Direct Marketing, The Economist, Erdol und Kohle, Erdgas,Petrochemie: Hydrocarbon Technology, EuroBusiness, Euromoney,Europe 2000, European Cosmetic Markets, European Rubber Journal,Financial Market Trends, Financial World, Finnish Trade Review,Food Engineering International, Forest Industries, Gas World,Graphic Arts Monthly, The Printing Industry, High TechnologyBusiness, IDC Japan Report, Inc., International Trade Forum,Investment International, Israel Business, Japan EconomicNewswire, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal ofMarketing Research, Kyodo, Market Research Europe, Medical WorldNews, MEED Middle East Economic Digest, Middle EastAgribusiness, OECD Economic Outlook, The Oil and Gas Journal,Oilweek, Petroleum Economist, Plastics World, Purchasing World,Report on the Austrian Economy, Restaurant-Hotel DesignInternational, Royal Bank of Scotland Review, SeafoodInternational, Soviet Aerospace & Technology, SupermarketBusiness Magazine, swissBusiness, Training: the Magazine ofHuman Resources Development, World Economic Outlook, World Oil.
Dialog's ASIA-PACIFIC DATABASE covers business and economics in Asia and the Pacific. It contains over 80,000 references from newspapers, magazines and other sources in North America and international. The Asia-Pasific Dun's Market Identifiers on Dialog is a directory listing of about 250,000 business establishments in 40 Asian and Pacific Rim countries. The Middle East News Network publishes daily news, analysis and comments from 19 countries in the Middle East produced by Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and Persian press. You can read these news through Reuters (e.g., on NewsGrid/CompuServe), Down Jones News/Retrieval, and Information Access. The Jerusalem Institute for Western Defence provides a monthly newsletter with research of the Arab press. It has unedited quotes from around the Arab world. Write LISTSERV@jerusalem1.datasrv.co.il to subscribe (Command: sub arab-press Firstname Lastname). The International Reports financial newsletter may be read and searched on NewsNet, Information Access, and Mead Data Central. NewsNet also has Brazil Service, Mexico Service, Country Risk Guides and Weekly International Market Alert. Use CompuServe's Consumer Report to spot trends in the consumer markets for appliances, automobiles, electronics/cameras, home. EventLine (IQuest, CompuServe) monitors international conferences, exhibitions, and congresses. The Boomer Report concentrates on the habits of the "the baby-boom generation." Affaersdata in Sweden offers the Swedish-language service "Export-Nytt," which brings short news stories about export/import from all over the world. Information providers are the Swedish Export Council, the Norwegian Export Council, and the Suomen Ulkomaankauppaliitto in Finland. Orbit has an English language database of Japanese technology. It contains abstracts of articles, patents and standards from more than 500 Japanese magazines. Dow Jones News/Retrieval brings full-text stories from the Japan Economic Newswire. The Business Dateline contains news from more than 150 regional business publications in the United States and Canada. The ABI/Inform business database (UMI/Data Courier) contains abstracts and full-text articles from 800 business magazines and trade journals. The sources include the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Business Korea, and the World Bank Research Observer. Market research reports from Frost & Sullivan are available through Data-Star. It produces over 250 market reports each year, in 20 industrial sectors. These reports cover results of face-to- face interviews with manufacturers, buyers and trade association executives, supplemented by a search and summary of secondary sources. Glasnost in the former Soviet Union produced a long list of new online information sources, including:
The Soviet Press Digest (stories from over 100 newspapers),The BizEkon Reports (financial news from 150 business andfinancial magazines),SovLegisLine (law),BizEdon Directory (detailed information about over 2,500companies, who want to do business with foreign companies),Who's Who in the Soviet Union andThe Soviet Public Association Directory.
Some of these may have changed their names now. Contact Mead Data Central (Nexis/Lexis), Data-Star, FT Profile and Reuters for more information. DJNR also offers full text from the Paris-based International Herald Tribune, publications like the Guardian and others from the United Kingdom, and from sources in the former Soviet Union (like Soviet Press Digest, BizEkon News, Moscow News, and others.) E-EUROPE is an electronic communications network for doing business in Eastern Europe countries, including CIS. Its purpose is to help these countries in their transition to market economies. It links business persons in Western Europe-Asia-North America with those in Eastern Europe. Subscription is free and for anyone. To subscribe to E-EUROPE, send email LISTSERV@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU (or a LISTSERV closer to you) with the body the message containing this line
SUB E-EUROPE YourFirstName YourLastName
E-EUROPE also offers International Marketing Insights (IMI) for several countries in this region, including Russia, Hungary, Czech, Germany, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Lithuania. The IMI reports important developments that have implications for traders and investors. Typically brief and to-the-point, they are prepared by American Embassies and Consulates. The reports cover a wide range of subjects, such as new laws, policies and procedures, new trade regulations, changing dynamics in the marketplace, recent statements by influential parties and emerging trade opportunities. For a list of E-EUROPE IMI offerings, send the following commands to LISTSERV@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU:
IMI update notices are not posted to E-EUROPE, but you can subscribe to updates to these files. The English-language newsletter "St. Petersburg Business News" is published in Russia by the Committee for foreign economic affairs of LECC. For information and subscription, send email to aag@cfea.ecc.spb.su . The Financial Izvestia weekly, the joint publication of London Financial Times and Moscow-based Izvestia, is available by email. The complete feed includes the full text of all articles published in the Russian language newspaper, and financial and statistical tables on the commodities and financial markets. Write Legpromsyrie at root@sollo.soleg.msk.su for information. Several Russian newspapers, including Commersant Daily, Nega, and press services like Postfactum and Interfax, have digests or complete editions available for Relcom network subscribers, usually for a nominal fee.
Interested in the European Common Market? ————————————————————- Pergamon Financial Data Services, NewsNet, and others, offer Dun & Bradstreet European Marketing Online. It contains company profiles of around two million European companies. Pergamon's ICC U.K. Company Databases contains data on over 140,000 British companies with up to ten years' financial history, addresses, key people, mother firms/subsidiaries, stock quotes. Its Comptex News Service brings daily business news from the European arena. The UK Company Library on CompuServe has financial information about more than 1.2 million British companies from sources like Extel Cards, ICC British Co. Directory and Kompass UK. Data-Star offers Tenders Electronic Daily, a database of European Community contract offers. Investext offers a series of bulletins authored by Europe Information Service (EIS): European Report (biweekly), Tech Report (Monthly), Transport Europe (monthly), Europe Environment (bimonthly), European Energy (bimonthly), European Social Policy (monthly), and Multinational Service (monthly). Investext is available through Data-Star, Lexis/Nexis, Dow Jones News/Retrieval, Dialog, NewsNet, and others. The German Company Library (on CompuServe) offers information about some 48,000 German companies from databases like Credit Reform and Hoppenstedt's Directory of German Companies. Its European Company Library contains information about over two million companies in the area. Nexis (Mead Data Central International) brings news and background information about companies and the different countries in Europe. Their Worldwide Companies database contains company profiles, balance sheets, income statements, and other financial data on the largest companies in 40 countries. Nexis also has Hoppenstedt German Trade Associations directory, four more newsletters from the Europe Information Service: Europe Energy, Europe Environment, Transport Europe and European Insight, a weekly brief on European Community-related happenings, and Notisur, a biweekly news and analysis report on South American and Caribbean political affairs. LEXIS (also Mead) has databases with information about English and French law, and other law material from Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland and North America. Their Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory has information on over 700,000 lawyers and law firms worldwide. The directory can be used for referrals, selection of associate counsel, and evaluation of competitive counsel. Check out KOMPASS EUROPE when planning exports to the EEC. Its database contains details about companies in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Norway. (On Dialog) ILINK has the EEC-I conference (Discussion about the European Common Marked). Profile offers full-text searches (and a clipping service) in stories from Financial Times. The database is being updated daily at 00:01. Those exporting to the EEC need to master German, French, Italian, and Spanish besides having a common knowledge of English. Conversation is the easy part. The problem is writing, and especially when the task is to translate technical expressions to the languages used within the Common Market. For help, check out the Eurodicautom online dictionary through ECHO (and others.) Start by selecting a source language (like English), and up to seven languages for simultaneous translation. The translation is word-for-word, but may be put in the correct context if required. ECHO also offers the European Commission's CORDIS database (Community Research and Development Information Service) containing information about research results within scientific and technical fields. Keywords: Race, Esprit, Delta, Aim, Fast, Brite, Comett, Climat, Eclair and Tedis. CONCISE (COsine Network's Central Information Service for Europe) is a pan-European information service to the COSINE scientific and industrial research community. COSINE (Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe) is part of the European Common Market's Eureka project. CONCISE brings information about the COSINE project, networks, conferences, networking products, special interest groups, projects databases, directories, email services and other networked services in Europe. It is intended for researchers in all fields, from astronomers through linguists and market researchers to zoologists. CONCISE is accessible by email through the Internet, by FTP, and interactively (telnet) over the European academic and research networks, over public data networks and over telephone links. (See ECHO in appendix 1 for more information.) The mailing list EC@INDYCMS.BITNET is dedicated to discussion of the European Community, and is open to all interested persons. Subscribe by email to a LISTSERV close to where you live, or to LISTSERV@INDYCMS.BITNET.
Scandinavia —————- Most countries have several local language news services. In Norway, Statens Datasentral lets you search stories from the NTB news agency. Aftenposten, a major newspaper, offers full-text stories from their A-TEKST database, from Dagens Naeringsliv (DNX), and the Kapital magazine. Before meeting with people from Norsk Hydro, go online to get recent news about these companies. It will only take a couple of minutes. What you find may be important for the success of your meeting. If you know the names of your most important competitors, use their names as keywords for information about recent contracts, joint venture agreements, products (and their features), and other important information. KOMPASS ONLINE offers information about over 180,000 companies and 34,000 products in Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain. The information is presented in the local language of the different countries. KOMPASS is used by easy menus. You can search by
* company name* product or service (optionally using an industryclassification code for companies or products)* number of employees, type of business, postal number,telephone area code, export area, year of incorporation,bank affiliation.
The database is available through Affaersdata (Sweden). New users pay a one time fee of around US$85. Searching costs around US$3.00 per minute. The TYR database on the Finnish service VIEXPO (tel.: +358 67 235100) offers information about 2,500 companies in the Vaasa and Oulu regions with addresses, phone numbers, contact persons, main products, revenues, and SIC industry classification codes. We can go on like this. The list of available services is long in many countries.
How to monitor your competitors ———————————————- Sales managers need to know what competitors are doing. Lacking this knowledge, it is risky to maneuver in the market. Start by making a strategy for online market intelligence. Here are some practical hints:
(1) Select online services that offer clipping of stories and information based on your search words or phrases. Examples: NewsFlash on NewsNet, //TRACK on Dow Jones News/Retrieval, The Executive News Service on CompuServe. Use these services for automatic monitoring of stock quotes and business news.
(2) Read what investment analysts and advisors write about yourcompetitors. Most markets are well covered by databases andother sources of information.
(3) Read what competitors write about themselves. Their pressreleases are available from online databases in severalcountries.
(4) Compare your competitors with your own company and industry.Items: stock prices, profits, revenue, etc.
(5) Regularly monitor companies and their particular products.
(6) Watch trend reports about your industry. Search for patterns and possible niches.
(7) Save what you find on your hard disk for future references.
Can you get everything through the online medium? Of course not! Don't expect to find production data, production formulas, detailed outlines of a company's pension plan, or the number of personal computers in a company. Such information rarely finds its way to public databases.
Intelligence by fax —————————- Financial Times' Profile has Fax Alert. Predefine your interests using search words. Stories will be cut and sent to your personal fax number whenever they appear. Price depends on the number of characters transmitted. Other online services offer similar services.
The Bulletin Board as a sales tool ————————————————— Many companies - large and small - use bulletin board systems as a marketing instrument. Here is an example: The San Francisco-based Compact Disk Exchange (Tel.: +1-415-824- 7603) offers a database of used CD records. Members can call in to buy at very low prices. They can sell old CDs through the board or buy from other members. (1992)
Marketing and sales by modem —————————————— The Americans have a gift for this. You meet them in online forums all over the world, in person or through agents, and especially in computer oriented conferences and clubs. Their main strategy is reference selling. Make key customers happy, and make sure they tell others. In Chapter 5, I told you what happened when a member wrote about his upgrade to a 425 megabytes hard disk in CompuServe's Toshiba forum. It made me place my order with his preferred seller. One common sales strategy is to be constantly present in relevant conferences, and spend a generous amount of time helping others. This takes time. By proving competence and willingness to help, you build a positive personal profile. This profile is the key to business, information about competitors and other benefits. To drop quickly into a conference to post an "advertisement," is a waste of time. The message may be read by some, but chances are that you will be criticized (in public) for having 'polluted their environment' with a commercial message. Besides, the volume of information in the best conferences for your marketing effort is probably too high to make traditional advertisements worth the while.
Electronic mail ———————- Here is a list of other useful applications of electronic mail:
* to distribute quickly lists of important prospects to yoursales force,* to avoid lengthy telephone conversations,* to receive order information faster and more efficiently thanby traditional mail or fax,* to distribute quickly reports and memos to key people allover the world,* to send new prices and product announcements to customers,* to exchange spread sheets and analyses between users ofpersonal computers.
If this isn't enough, ask for information from the InternationalBusiness Network at 70724.311@compuserve.com (or, at 70724,311 onCompuServe).
- Quick transfers with a minimum of errors- Rescuing lost files- Copyright and other legal matters- Unwritten laws about personal conduct- Privacy- Fax services weigh less than your printer- File transfers through the Internet
Speed and safety ———————— Read about MNP, CCITT V.42, and V.42bis in appendix 2. These are popular methods for automatic error correction and compression of data. Compression gives faster transfers of data. To use them, your modem must have these features built-in. They must also be enabled in the modem of the service that you are calling. Compression is particularly helpful when sending or receiving text, for example news stories and messages in conferences. They ensure faster transfers. They are not of much help when transferring precompressed texts and programs. They may even make file transfers with protocols like ZMODEM, Kermit, and XMODEM impossible. If this happens, temporarily turn off the MNP and V.24/V42bis settings in your modem (more about this in appendix 2). Some online services let users retrieve conference messages using a special get or grab function. This function often comes in two versions: * Grab to display: New messages and conference items are received in an uninterrupted stream without stops between items. Retrieval of text can happen at maximum speed. * Grab to compressed file: New messages and conference items are selected, automatically compressed and stored in a file. This file is then transferred using ZMODEM or similar protocols. Some services offer unattended online work with a variation of the "get compressed file" method. Read about 'offline readers' in chapter 16 for more about this. The more advanced your software is, the more time it will take to learn how to use it. The rewards are lower telephone costs, faster transfers, and less time spent doing technical online work. Recommended.
Different needs, different solutions —————————————————— Frank Burns of the American online service MetaNet is spokesperson for the strategy SCAN - FOCUS - ACT. On your first visits to a new online service, you SCAN. The goal is to get an overview of what is being offered and find out how to use it most efficiently. Notes are made of interesting bulletins, databases, conferences, messages, news services, public domain and shareware programs, games, and more. Capture all of it to disk. Don't study it until disconnected from the service. Evaluate the material to prepare for your next moves: FOCUS and ACT. As you learn about offerings, users and applications, your use of the service changes. What was interesting on your first visits, lose out to new discoveries. Some applications may stay as 'regular online functions', like when you decide to read a given news report on Monday mornings. Here are some other hints:
* Find out what you do NOT have to know and have enough self- confidence immediately to discard irrelevant material. Walk quickly through the information. Select what you need now, store other interesting items on your hard disk, clip references, and drop the remainder of your capture file.
* Learn when and how to use people, computers, libraries and other resources. Prepare well before going online. Note that the online resource may not necessarily be the quickest way to the goal. If you want the name of Michael Jackson's latest album, you may get a faster answer by calling a local music shop. . . .
* Make an outline of how to search the service before going online. If required, start by going online to collect help menus and lists of search commands (unless you already have the printed user information manual). Study the instructions carefully, plan your visit, and then call back. Often, it may be useful to do trial searches in online data, which you have previously captured to your hard disk. Do this to check if your use of search words is sensible. Who knows, you may even have what you are searching for right there. Besides, it is imperative that you use the correct search terms to find what you're looking for. Write your search strategy on a piece of paper. If you know how to write macros for your communications program, consider writing some for your planned search commands. - Few people can type 240 characters per second. Using macros may save you time, frustration and money.
* It may be wise to do your search in two steps. On your first visit: Get a LIST of selected headlines or references, and then log off the service. Study your finds, and plan the next step. Then call back to get full-text of the most promising stories. This strategy is often better than just 'hanging online' while thinking. When you feel the pressure of the taximeter, it is easy to make costly mistakes.
* Novices should always go the easiest way. Don't be shy. Ask SOS Assistance services for help, if available. Invest in special communication programs with built in automatic online searching features. They are designed to make your work easier.
* Limit your search and avoid general and broad search terms.It is often wise to start with a search word that is so 'narrow'that it is unlikely to find articles outside your area of interest.Your goal is not to find many stories. You want the right ones.
When everything fails ——————————- Data communications is simple - when you master it. Occasionally, however, you WILL lose data. You may even experience the worst of all: losing unread private email on your hard disk. A while ago, this happened to a friend. She logged on to her mailbox service using the communications program Procomm. After capturing all her mail, she tried to send a message. For some reason, the computer just froze. It was impossible to close the capture file. She had to switch the power OFF/ON to continue. All retrieved mail was obviously lost. The other day, I had a similar experience. After having written a long and difficult letter, something went wrong. The outfile was inexplicably closed. The resulting file size was 0 bytes. Both problems were solved by the MS-DOS program CHKDSK run with the /F option. If you ever get this problem, and have an MS-DOS computer, try it. It may save your day.
Copyright notices and legal stuff ————————————————- Most commercial online services protect their offerings with copyright notices. This is especially so for database information and news. Some vendors make you accept in writing not to store captured data on a local media (like diskettes or hard disks). Others (like Prodigy in the U.S.) force clients to use communication software that makes it impossible to store incoming data to disk. The reason is simple. Information providers want to protect their income. In most countries, you can quote from what others have written. You can cut pieces out of a whole and use in your own writing. What you cannot do, however, is copy news raw to resell to others. If an online service discovers you doing that, expect a law suit. Read copyright notices to learn about the limitations on your usage of data that you receive.
Unwritten laws about personal conduct ——————————————————- Some services let their users be anonymous. This is the case on many chat services. If you want to pose as Donald Duck or Jack the Ripper, just do that. Many free BBS systems let you register for full access to the service during your first visit. It is possible to use any name. Don't do that. Use your true name, unless asked to do otherwise. It's impolite and unrespectful of the other members to participate in online discussions using a false identity. Being helpful is an important aspect of the online world. The people you meet 'there' use of their time to help you and others. Often free. The atmosphere is one of gratitude, and a positive attitude toward all members. If you use rude words in public, expect your mailbox to fill with angry messages from others. Those who respond carefully to personal attacks, will never regret it. Don't say things online that you would not have said in person. REMEMBER: Words written in a moment of anger or frustration can be stored on at least one hard disk. Your 'sins' may stay there for a long time - to resurface when you least want it to. Here are some guidelines (often called 'online netiquette'):
* If mail to a person doesn't make it through, avoid posting the message to a conference. Keep private messages private.
* It is considered extremely bad taste to post private mail from someone else on public conferences, unless they give you explicit permission to redistribute it.
* Many users end their messages with some lines about how to get in touch with them (their email address, phone number, address, etc.). Limit your personal "signature" to maximum four lines.
* Do not send test messages to a public conference, unless they are set up to serve this purpose.
* If someone requests that readers reply by private email,do that. Do not send to the conference, where the requestappeared.
* When replying to a message in a public conference, manyusers 'quote' the original message prefixed by '>' oranother special character, as in
You wrote:>I strongly believe it was wrong to attack>Fidel Castro in this way!
When you quote another person, edit out whatever isn'tdirectly applicable to your reply. By including the entiremessage, you'll only annoy those reading it.
* Note that if you USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, people willthink you're shouting.
Finally, smile with me about the following story: According to Time magazine (7/19/93, p. 58), three women who corresponded with Mr. X over the network discovered his duplicity and went public on the network. The incident sparked a lively debate over electronic etiquette (and ruined Mr. Casanova's chances for further romance).
Fax services weigh less than your computer's printer —————————————————————————— Many online services let you send electronic mail as fax messages. This is an interesting feature when in that far away place without a printer. Send the draft contract or other texts to your hotel's fax machine or to your client's office to get a printout on paper.
Privacy ———- The level of online privacy differs by network, service, and application. Whatever these services may claim, always expect that someone, somewhere, is able to watch, even record. All mailbox services have at least one person authorized to access your personal mail box in case of an emergency. Most of the time they not have a right to read it without your permission, but they can. In some countries, mailbox services may let outsiders (like the police) routinely read your private email to check for 'illegal' contents. In this respect, email is not safer than ordinary mail. The good news is that most 'inspectors' and 'sysops' are good, honest people. On the other hand, it is useful to know your situation. It is not safe to send sensitive information (like credit card details) by private electronic mail. True, the probability that an outsider should get hold of and take advantage of such information is small, but it definitely is not 100 percent safe.
Encrypt your email to protect sensitive information.
Always assume that someone is recording all that is being said in online conferences, chats, and other interactive social gatherings. In chats, anyone using a personal computer as a terminal can log the conversation, or use screen dump just to capture 'interesting parts'. Many PC users can scroll back the screen. They can wait and decide whether to save the conversation in a file until after the conversation has taken place. With these capabilities widely available, users of chats and talk should always assume that their conversations are being recorded. Do not say indiscreet things in small, informal discussions. It may be recorded and reposted under embarrassing circumstances. The program PGP has become the defacto international Internet standard for public key encryption. For more on privacy, check out ETHICS-L@MARIST.BITNET. The files RFC 1113 through 1115 are about 'Privacy enhancements for Internet electronic mail' (see appendix 1 for how to get them). Usenet has alt.privacy (Privacy issues in cyberspace), and comp.society.privacy (Effects of technology on privacy).
File transfers through the Internet —————————————————- The Internet is a term used of a network interconnecting hundreds of thousands of computer centers around the world. These centers use different types of hardware and software, and different methods of file transfer. What method to use for file transfers depends on the source host and the type of mailbox computer that you are using. The transfer usually takes place in two steps:
1. Transferring files from a remote data center to your localmailbox host.
2. Transfer from your local mailbox host to your personalcomputer.
Transfer to your local mailbox host —————————————————- We will explain the most commonly used method for those who only have access to file transfer by email. This method can be used by everybody. Transferring plain text files is easy. Files with imbedded word processor control codes will often have to be treated as binary files. More about this later. To transfer a text to another user, just send it as an ordinary electronic message. Getting text files from a library on a remote computer is a special case. Often, they can be had by sending a retrieval command (like GET) by email to the remote center. After a while, the file will be sent to your mailbox by email. You can read it like you read other mail. Example: The file BINSTART can be retrieved from the KIDART directory on a computer center in North Dakota, U.S.A. It explains how to retrieve binary art files from the KIDLINK project's file libraries. To get the file, send a message to the center's mail forwarding 'agent' at LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU. Use the following command syntax in your text:
GET
To get the BINSTART file, write the following command in the TEXT of your message:
Note that the command has to be put in the body of the mail and not
in the subject field. The file will arrive in your mailbox after a
while.
Also, note that lists of available files are usually available
by using an "INDEX
Transferring binary files ————————————- Users with a direct connection to the Internet usually have access to the FTP command (File Transfer Protocol). If they do, they often prefer FTP for transfers of binary files like computer programs, pictures, sound, and compressed text files. The bad news is that the FTP command is not available to all users of Internet mail. These will have to use "FTP by mail," or other tricks to transfer such files. More about this in a moment. The FTP command gives access to a special file transfer service. It works in the following way:
1. Logon to your local email host and enter 'FTP remote- center-code'. Example: 'ftp 134.129.111.1'. This command will connect you to the center in North Dakota mentioned above. Here, you will be prompted for user name and password. Enter 'anonymous' as user name, and use your real name or email address as password. This way of logging on to retrieve files is called "transfers by anonymous ftp." You can use this method on many hosts on the Internet.
2. When connected to the remote center, you can request transfer of the desired file to your mailbox. Before doing that, you may have to navigate to a given file catalog (cd directory), and tell the host that the transfer is to be binary (bin). Finally, initiate the transfer by entering a "GET file name" command.
3. The file will be transferred to your local mailbox computer at high speed. When the transfer is done, you logoff from the remote center to "get back" to your mailbox computer's prompt line. Now, you can transfer the file to your personal computer using communications protocols like Kermit, XMODEM, ZMODEM or whatever else is available.
Binary files transferred as text codes ——————————————————— If you do not have access to FTP, you must use ordinary email for your binary transfers. Usually, email through the Internet can only contain legal character codes (ASCII characters between number 32 - 126). Most systems cannot transfer graphics or program files directly, since these files normally contain binary codes (which are outside this ASCII character range). The solution is to convert binary files to text codes using a utility program called UUENCODE. The encoded file can be sent by ordinary email, as in this example:
From TRICKLE@VM1.NoDak.EDU Fri Aug 16 16:32:37 1991Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1991 09:31:34 CDTTo: opresno@EXTERN.UIO.NOSubject: Part 1/1 SIMTEL20.INF PD:
The file PD:
When you receive a message with uuencoded text, download it to your personal computer's hard disk. Use an editor to cut out the codes and paste them to an empty work file. Using the example above, the first line in your work file should contain:
begin 600 SIMTEL20.INF
and the last line should contain end
Now, use a utility program called UUDECODE to convert the file back to its binary form (or whatever). More information about uuencoding and uudecoding is given in the BINSTART file mentioned above (for MS-DOS computers). It has a detailed explanation, BASIC source code for making the program UUDECODE.COM, and a DEBUG script for those preferring that. Versions of UUDECODE are also available for other types of computers.
Transfer of pictures —————————— Denis Pchelkin in Protvino (Russia) is 11 years old, has two cats and one dog, and has contributed beautiful computer graphics art to the KIDLINK project (1992). The file ART019 in the KIDART catalog of the North Dakota center contains one of his creations. It is a UUENCODEd picture in GIF graphics format. You can retrieve Denis' creation by sending a GET command to LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU . Put the following command in the TEXT of your message:
The LISTSERVer will return a message filled with strange uu-codes. We assume that you have already retrieved the BINSTART file, and that you have a version of the conversion program. Your next step is uudecoding: Read the message into an editor or a viewing program. Cut and paste the codes to a work file. Keep the original as backup. Use the UUDECODE.COM program to convert ART019 into a GIF formatted file. Now, view the picture with your favorite graphics program. (Or use shareware GIF-viewers like PICEM, VUIMG, and VPIC for MS-DOS computers. These programs are available from CompuServe's IBM forums and other services.) Sending binary files in uuencoded form has weaknesses. One is the lack of automatic error correction when sending/receiving e- mail. Noise on the line can easily distort the picture. File size is another problem. UUENCODEing typically increases file sizes by almost one third. Some mailbox systems restrict the length of individual messages that you can receive, and the file may just be too big. If the uuencoded file gets too big, some services can (or will by default) split it up in parts and then sent separately. Tons of uuencoded public domain and shareware programs are available for retrieval by ordinary email.
FTP by email ——————- While some services accept commands like GET KIDART ART019 by email, this is not so with the many so-called FTP libraries. Many of them can only be accessed by FTP. Services exist that will do FTP transfers by email for those not having access to the FTP command. The most popular is at DEC Corporate Research in the U.S. For more information, write a message to one of the following addresses:
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au
In the TEXT of your message, put the word "HELP". FTPMAIL lets you uuencode binary files for transfers. It can split large files up into several messages, thus helping you around local restrictions on the size of each incoming mail message.
Packet data services and data transportation services like Tymnet Outdial, Infonet, Internet, and PC Pursuit may help keep costs down. About reducing the cost of using mailing lists.