NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY : Feb 14, 1994 Networks and Community is devoted to encouraging LOCAL resource creation & GLOBAL resource sharing. compiler : Sam Sternberg This is the 8th report of 1994 ------------------------------ ALERT DISCUSSIONS FUNDRAISING LEGISLATION REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE TOOLS TRENDS ALERT - YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT IS NEEDED ======================================== Public interest issues affecting the net may lose the single MOST IMPORTANT VOICE in the very near future. I personally find that Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is better on the issues than any other organization. CPSR is in imminent danger of closing down. Foundation support has declined this year and it cannot sustain operation on the income received from dues. "We are faced with a choice. We can close our doors and hope that our work will be carried on elsewhere or we can issue one last appeal or challenge to the computing community. We have chosen to issue this appeal. I don't want to exaggerate the seriousness of this appeal - without financial relief in the very near future, we will close down the doors. (The Spring NII conference will occur regardless but it may be our last event...) If you support the goals of CPSR and you believe that our work is important RIGHT NOW, please consider joining our organization or sending a donation so we can continue the fight into the 21st century and beyond. Small donations - $5 or $10 - are welcome! Of course, larger donations are even more welcome. If you can make a larger donation we urge you to do so, but any help is much appreciated. If you have friends or colleagues who are familiar with the work of CPSR and have similar concerns as you, please let them know. =============================================================== CPSR Pledge Form I want to help retain a strong, independent voice of responsibility in the computing community. I am making this pledge Please send this *pledge card* to cpsr@cpsr.org. __ $5 __ $10 __ $20 __ $30 __ $50 __ $75 __ $100 __ $200 __ $500 __ $1000 __ Other ============================ clip and mail======================= or BECOME A MEMBER Name ___________________________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip _____________________________________________________ Home phone _____________________ Work phone______________________ Company ___________________________________________________________ Type of work ______________________________________________________ E-mail address _____________________________________________________ CPSR Chapter __ Acadiana __ Austin __ Berkeley __ Boston __ Chicago __ Denver/Boulder __ Los Angeles __ Loyola/New Orleans __ Madison __ Maine __ Milwaukee __ Minnesota __ New Haven __ New York __ Palo Alto __ Philadelphia __ Pittsburgh __ Portland __ San Diego __ Santa Cruz __ Seattle __ Washington, DC __ No chapter in my area CPSR Membership Categories __ $ 75 REGULAR MEMBER __ $ 50 Basic member __ $ 200 Supporting member __ $ 500 Sponsoring member __ $1000 Lifetime member __ $ 20 Student/low income member __ $ 50 Foreign subscriber __ $ 50 Library/institutional subscriber (Corporate memberships also available) Additional tax-deductible contribution to support CPSR projects: $50 __ $75 __ $100 __ $250 $500 __ $1000 __ Other Total Enclosed: $ ________ Make check out to CPSR and mail to: CPSR P.O. Box 717 Palo Alto, CA 94301 DISCUSSIONS =========== NPTN LISTSERV Details of NPTN's process for re-examining its activities and goals were posted this past week. Clearly, a total re-assessment is underway. 4 primary issues are being focused on: 1. The Basic Functions of NPTN 2. The Economics of Community Computing 3. NPTN and Political Action 4. INTRA-Network Relations and Quality Control a specific listserv for each of these topics was created. In the TRENDS section I will look recent developments of different economic models for civic nets. Tom Grundner - NPTN's founder - outlined the issues from the freenet perspective. I THE BASIC FUNCTIONS OF NPTN THE GENERAL QUESTION: How should NPTN define itself as an organization? More specifically what are the key function(s) it should be playing over the next three years? SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS *MIGHT* INCLUDE: 1) Should NPTN continue to actively "evangelize" for the development of locally-oriented, "free" (a term to be discussed on another list), public-access, community computer systems; OR should we support the development of systems and methods which bypass these community hubs and encourage direct, pretty much unlimited, individual access to the Internet (or whatever successor network)? - Can the two models co-exist? - If the evangelism should continue, should it be done more agressively than we have done it so far? - If the evangelism should continue, should we be actively taking this evangelism beyond the borders of the U.S., or keep all our work within this country? 2) Should NPTN take responsibility for actively helping communities to come online (e.g. by encouraging formal organizing committees, allocating citywide "franchises" to local groups, providing materials, etc.); OR should NPTN simply make information widely available to anyone and everyone then stay clear until such time as someone has something tangible up and running? 3) Should NPTN be in the "cybercasting" business? That is: as these systems come online, should NPTN be attempting to formally service them by developing a range of network-wide features that they can use to supplement local resources; OR should each system simply develop their own materials and just share them with each other as they feel appropriate? II. THE ECONOMICS OF COMMUNITY COMPUTING THE GENERAL QUESTION: How do we build a stable economic model that will support the development of both NPTN and each of the individual affiliate systems? SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS *MIGHT* INCLUDE: 1) Should NPTN create categories of membership based upon the degree of commercial practices used to support the system. For example: - Full Commercial System: One in which the user is charged an on-going fee for *any* access to the system. - Commercial I System: One in which some portions of the system are free to the user, while other portions require a fee to access or use. - Commercial II System: One in which system usage is free, but a registration or initiation fee is charged. - Freehold System: One in which there are no charges to the user either to access or use the system. 2) If commercial membership categories are created, what (if anything) should NPTN be doing to support those activities? (Some potential examples: lining-up commercial products at good rates for re-sale on the affiliate systems; providing financial services such a VISA/MasterCard clearence, or other activities which offer economies of scale.) 3) If Freehold Systems are operating, what (if anything) should NPTN be doing to support those systems? (Some potential examples: conducting workshops on grantsmanship and other means of raising monies from the community, pursuing sponsorships of features from major companies which would run on the Freeholds, pursuing networkwide foundation or corporate grants to provide services, equipment, or operating monies to the Freehold systems, etc.) 4) Should NPTN seek payments or royalties from non-NPTN commercial systems who send their users to our systems? (Said monies to go into a fund from which the Affiliate Council can create our own internal grants program.) 5) What is the economic model which allows NPTN to stay alive in order to DO all this? 6) What is the DOWNSIDE of commercializing the Free-Net's in terms of: a) increased user demands and expectations for "commercial quality" system performance; b) will the *volunteer* sysops continue to be volunteers if they think (rightly or wrongly) that someone is getting "rich" off of their work; and c) in most cases can enough revenues be brought in to overcome problems a) and b), AND the cost and hassle of the accounting and billing involved, AND still yield enough monies to make it worthwhile. III NPTN AND POLITICAL ACTION THE GENERAL QUESTION: Should NPTN take an active stance in the development of federal. state, and/or local legislation or regulation to promote the development of community computing? 1) Should NPTN develop a piece of Federal legislation which would specifically target permanent nationwide core funding for the development and operation of community computer systems--and promote that legislation through all available federal-level political channels? 2) Should NPTN develop a piece of model State legislation which would specifically target permanent core funding for th development and operation of community computer systems within each state--and which could be promoted through all available state-level political channels? 3) Should NPTN form statewide committees to promote the development of community computer funding via the activities of statewide Public Utilities Commissions and other similar agencies? 4) Should NPTN devise a special program which will make local communities aware of and engage them in the need for the development of information age structures and services in their localities? 5) What mechanisms would need to be created to accomplish each of the above? How would they be created? How would they be funded? How would they be controlled? IV INTRA-NETWORK RELATIONS AND QUALITY CONTROL THE GENERAL QUESTION: What responsibility do we bear for keeping our own house in order--to do the things necessary to increase the online quality of ALL of our systems, thus increasing the reputation of the network as a whole, thus benefitting everyone--especially when it comes to grantsmanship. SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS *MIGHT* INCLUDE: 1) Should we have minimal standards for the acceptance of groups as organizing committees. If so, what ? 2) Once a system goes online, should there be minimal standards with regard to the operation of an affiliate (e.g. "look and feel" issues, minimal menu categories, standardized menu structures, provision of certain minimal services, etc.)? If so, what should they be? How would those standards be enforced? 3) Should there be requirements for resource sharing (e.g. information features, organizational and operational documents, etc.) over and above the "Plan B: NPTN Information Cooperative" option in the affiliate agreement. 4) Should NPTN undertake to raise the monies necessary to create a "state-of-the art" software product for community computers to run on? If so, should we then, as an organization, standardize on that software product? 5) Should NPTN allow community systems which are NOT affiliates of NPTN to pass their users on to us via their teleports? Is that fair to our systems and to the organization as a whole?" ------------------------------------- Several listservs had comments on the question of "public" - i.e. government support for civic networks. -------------------------------------- CANADIAN FREENET LISTSERV There was some discussion of the impact of the clipper chip proposals on Canada. A number of issues were raised about control over the keys for canadian users. Also the need for canadian manufacturers to participate in the production of clipper compliant hardware was raised. COM-PRIV Posters had a rambling discussion on the role of government in the production and marketing of information on the Internet. Strong positions for and against were taken. The majority of opinion fall into the " some is inevitable" category. Competition with the Private Sector was frowned upon by several posters and just as vigorously defended by others. A proposal for a government funded encyclopedia emergered and was debated. [ apparently the participants are unaware of the Internet Encyclopedia project which is ongoing now - participants view the entire contents of the Internet as part of a vast encyclopedia - they are just working of giving it a little more formal focus. ] --------------------------------------------------------------- A great deal of material furthering the debate and reporting on the Administration's action on the Clipper chip appeared throughout the internet. I hope to do a short special issue later this week summarizing the most interest posts. EVENTS ====== Canada's Coalition for Public Information has now established its listserv. To subscribe send a message to listproc@resudox.net in the text area: subscribe co_pub_info Your Name Send the word help for assistance. The Coalition is rapidly gaining recognition as THE group representing the broad public interest in Canada. In recent weeks coalition spokespeople have been represented regularly in Canadian Radio, TV and newspaper articles on the Global Information Infrastructure. The Coalition has adopted an ambitious agenda of Issues. .1 Participate in public policy development in order to advocate for universal, open, and affordable public access to the evolving information infrastructure through such actions as obtaining Coalition membership and involvement in CANARIE. .2 Advocate for public rights to information. .3 Advocate for and encourage a multiplicity of sources and authorship on the information highway, with an emphasis on Canadian culture, values and quality. .4 Develop policy positions on regulatory issues, such as, telecom and cable-TV rate structures. .5 Develop the research capacity to produce public policy positions. .6 Survey and report on the institutional readiness of public institutions, such as libraries and schools, as points of access to the information highway for many Canadians. .7 Support the work of community networks and FreeNets in providing community access to the information highway. .8 Work with the Cable-TV industry in expanding the "Canadian Cable in the Classroom" program into libraries and other public institutions that will provide access to the information highway. .9 Work with the telephone industry to develop strategies to ensure equitable and economic access to the information highways at the community level. .10 To ensure that access to information for the public good is part of the 500 channel universe .11 Initiate a public dialogue on privacy issues on the in order to develop a public policy position. .12 Develop a position on intellectual property and copyright for an electronic networked environment. for more information Contact: Stan Skrzeszewski ---------------------------- Paul Robinson announced the creation of a list for the public disclosure of bugs, system problems, viruses, and any other conditions in a computer system that people should be aware of so they can fix the problem. "It is also appropriate to report security holes, dangerous conditions in PBXs, cellular and wire telephone systems, and other computer-controlled devices. Also reports of things such as default accounts and passwords on systems that should be changed, etc. The focus will be on reporting clear descriptions of problems including how to generate them. The idea being that this will alert people to the nature of certain problems that they might be unaware of. Reproducing these conditions lets others know what is being done, and can allow people to post solutions on how to block them. The purpose in creating this list is that currently, the only means currently available for reporting discovered security holes in computer systems and possibly other areas is via the Computer Emergency Research Team (CERT) out of Carnegie Mellon University. The problem with CERT reporting is that the reports generally tend to be done in secrecy, and it fails to let system administrators and others know about what is happening so that these things can be fixed. In short, CERT acts like a black hole and takes too long to publicize problems until lots of places get hit because they didn't know about it. Some people feel that reports should not be publicized because potential reports might become available to "the bad guys." Well, the truth of the matter is that "the bad guys" trade their discoveries around all the time; the current use of secrecy is only hurting "the good guys" who want to protect their systems. This list has just been created, and pending creation of an automated processor will be temporarily moderated since my current equipment does not yet tell me what address the message is sent to. This will be changed not yet tell me what address the message is sent to. This will be changed in the next two weeks. There will, however, be two addresses. The general list will be PROBLEMS@TDR.COM which is used to post a report to the list. To subscribe to the list, use PROBLEMS-REQUEST@TDR.COM Currently, both addresses are moderated. This will change shortly as I upgrade the software on my system. Persons wishing to make a report but not be identified should state so in the text of their message. In the future, they will do so by using the -request address which will come to me directly." FUNDRAISING ============== WORKING WITH UNIVERSITIES OR COMMUNITY COLLEGES Toronto Freenet is going to open on March 31st. It has developed very good relations with all 3 local Universities. They are donating listservs, computers, office space, meeting rooms, and have been the source of many excellent volunteers. A recent posting, by Laine Ruus, a founder of the freenet, and the Data librarian at the University of Toronto; outlined the basis for that relationship. From the perspective of the universities, working with the freenet will result in several benefits. Freenet: - will provide access to important information resources which currently are not accessible, such as municipal, and provincial government resources, as well as commercial sector resources, which are not currently available via the Internet - will provide easy access to collections of other libraries in the Toronto area, which are not currently available via the Internet - will take some of the pressure off the UT Library's VAX (and thus from the campus backbone) from individuals going through the VAX to read their electronic mail at other sites (e.g. other Free-nets) - can provide a 'living-laboratory' for research in social issues, social behaviour, linguistics, distance education, etc. - can provide improved access and services to the disadvantaged - can provide University of Toronto with a low-cost opportunity to demonstrate their involvement and commitment in the local community outside the academic community itself, thus strengthening the town-and-gown relationship. --------------------------------------------- REALLY IMAGINATIVE FUNDRAISING IDEA # 1 Toronto Mutual Fund companies are raising funds for the YMCA. 16 companies have each put up $100,000 of their own money. All earnings are being donated to the Y, loses are absorbed by the companies. Started last April, the contest has generated over 1/2 a million dollars for the Y todate. Not bad for a starting amount of 1.6 million. The Y is getting about a 33% return on money it doesnt have! The contest chair is the President of a major local investment services company. He put the arm to his buddies. [ from the Toronto Star] ----------------------------------------------------------- REALLY IMAGINATIVE FUNDRAISING IDEA # 2 Michigan National Bank has added a new menu item to its 300 cash machines: information on charities."By pressing a few buttons, depositors are able to transfer contributions directly from their accounts to one or more of 20 charities around the state. The machine provides a receipt for tax records." The story [ in the New York times ] says the bank asked its officers "to recommend charities that seemed especially worthy of contributions." "Ariadne Magoulias, a spokeswoman for Michigan National, said the idea for teller-machine giving came from a bank employee who learned about a similar program offered by the tiny Fayette County Bank in Georgia. The employee proposed the idea, she said, 'and our management thought it had merit.'" [PUTNAM BARBER] REQUESTS FOR ASSISTANCE ======================== PBS PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY & LEARNING. The Merrow Report, the PBS series that covers education in America, is looking for the best examples of effective use of technology both inside and outside the classroom. Send ideas and suggestions to report@aol.com. [EDUCOM ] ---------------------------------------------------------- GOVERNMENT ON-LINE Max Lent : <72145.125@compuserve.com> is looking for information on community based on-line services having contact with government. " The reason that I am looking for this data is that I'm compiling a book entitled "Government On-line." The book is an annotated directory of public access government on-line services covering national, state, county, and community on-line services. Any information you can share with me would be greatly appreciated. I'm especially interested in state, county, city, or community governments offering on-line services directly or indirectly. I'm also looking for foreign versions of the same info. -------------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE - SIMILAR TO THE NII. The Australian Govt. is calling for submissions from interested groups to provide them with a discussion paper, and backbone of a marketing plan. [ sorry I don't have a contact address - ed ] TOOLS ====== "A PROGRAM TO ASSIST HTTP BROWSING OF NEWSGROUPS WWW browsers such as NCSA Mosaic allow the user to read newsgroup articles by specifying the group name in a URL eg 'news:comp.answers'. To browse through many groups, though, (and there are several thousand of them) you really need a page or pages containing links to all the groups. Newslist is a program which creates a hierarchy of pages for you based on the groups available from YOUR server. It is written in Python - a splendid interpreted object-oriented language which I suggest you get right now from the directory /pub/python at ftp.cwi.nl, if you haven't already got it. A suitable list detailing most groups can be found at ftp.uu.net in /uunet-info/newsgroups.gz. In addition to Python, you need: An NNTP-based news feed. A directory in which to put the pages. This is an early version. The programming is not very beautiful, but it works! It comes with no warranty, express or implied, but with the hope that some others may find it useful. Comments, improvements & suggestions welcomed. [Quentin Stafford-Fraser : fraser@hare.europarc.xerox.com ] -------------------------------------------------------------- A PROGRAM THAT ALMOST SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE [ Last weeks discussions on mail readers for FREEPORT software prompted me to put this commercial announcement in ] "Now you can reach your favorite Internet services using Windows. All you need is Cyberdesk and a dial-up UNIX shell account --- the least expensive account available --- to get powerful access to Internet at minimum cost. You can use the Internet service provider you like and connect through any standard UNIX shell. Cyberdesk, a new kind of communications software, eliminates the need for you to learn the complexities of UNIX to access and manage the Internet. Cyberdesk automatically issues the appropriate commands for you to exchange your private e-mail, participate in public newsgroups, ftp files to your local PC, and telnet to systems around the world. You read and respond to messages offline in Cyberdesk's highly graphical Windows environment. Cyberdesk routinely checks each system for new private e-mail and public messages in CompuServe's forums and USENET's newsgroups. All the messages from these various systems appear in one mailbox on your Cyberdesk. Cyberdesk also includes a gateway to your LAN e-mail post offices; a spelling checker with a 90,000+ word dictionary, named file folders including subfolders, over 30 address templates, binary attachments, automatic cross platform addressing, distribution lists, support for external encryption, file transfer protocols, terminal emulations, a sophisticated C-like script language, and extensive options for customization to your personal preferences. Details on Cyberdesk are in the file cdbro.exe, available via ftp on netcom.com in pub/cyber, Run cdbro.exe on your system to produce the brochure in Windows Help format. Or we'll be happy to fax it if you'll e-mail us your fax number. CyberCorp, Inc. Internet: cyber@netcom.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- A FREE MULTI-PROTOCOL SERVER FOR GOPHER AND HTTP GN Release 2.0 [ This tool allows sites to serve people with either sophisticated (graphical) and primitive (vt100 ascii) access to the net.] FEATURES: o GN serves two protocols gopher0 and HTTP/1.0, the protocol used by WWW clients. GN recognizes the protocol from the request and responds appropriately. This allows the use of WWW browsers like Mosaic in their native mode. o Over 60K of documentation. o Eases migration from gopher to WWW o Support for WAIS index searches. Free for any use, commercial or otherwise! (GNU license) AVAILABLE BY ANONYMOUS FTP: FTP to: ftp.acns.nwu.edu Get file pub/gn/gn-2.0.tar.Z OR VIA GOPHER: Server: hopf.math.nwu.edu port 70 Get file: gn-2.0.tar.Z Gn is a gopher/HTTP server which is written in C and runs under UNIX. It is freely available for any use, commercial or otherwise. The software is freely redistributable under the terms of the GNU public license. There is good documentation -- three man pages and an extensive installation and maintenance guide. you don't need to run different servers on different ports to have different levels of access! the GN gopher/http protocol server has support for WAIS index searches. This means you can index a collection of files with the index software designed for use with WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) and the gn server will respond to user queries by providing a menu of those documents from your collection which contain a match for the user supplied search term. Simple boolean combinations like `horses and cows' or `fox not goose' are supported. TRENDS ======= THE NET & THE LEGAL SYSTEM are starting to reshape each other. This is a process that will accelerate rapidly. The clipper chip proposal is a major example; but two items from the Educom Review this week show that more surprises are in store. LAWSUIT CHALLENGES ACCREDITATION STANDARDS. The Massachusetts School of Law has filed suit against the American Bar Association, challenging some of the standards imposed on law schools, such as the number of books housed in their libraries. The School makes use of electronic databases and interlibrary loans in lieu of "expensive hard-cover volumes of statues and court decisions that the ABA wants to see on our library shelve. SEX TITLES DRIVEN OFF INFO HIGHWAY. Canada's best-known computer science school, the University of Waterloo, banned from its campus five Internet BBSs dealing with violent sex and other areas out of concern that the contents contravene laws on pornography and obscenity. A university spokesperson says that while Waterloo tries to protect freedom of expression as much as possible, it must draw the line when it goes beyond the bounds of the law. ------------------------------------------------------- THE COST OF NET ACCESS CONTINUES TO DECLINE The cost of access to really powerful network service just declined by at least 95%. Last year if you wanted ATM service to your home machine you needed to spend $2,000. for a card. As the following announcement indicates; the price should soon be under $100 for similar power this year. While the price of ATM "access" from the phone companies is still very high - it too should decline steeply this year. [ ATM is about 20,000 times faster than what you get with a 14.4 modem.] ATM OVER COPPER. Micro Linear Corp. has developed a cheap ($20) chip that enables copper wire to carry ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) signals. Normally, ATM signals are too fast for copper to handle, and "noise" results from the metal's resistance to the tightly packed signal. The chip adjusts an equalization circuit that filters out the noise and restores the signal to its original clarity. [ EDUCOM ] ----------------------------------------- COMMERCIAL CIVIC NETWORKS and other varients are becoming more and more common. For several months reports of commercial access systems with strong public information components have been circulated on the Internet. NPTN is debating its position on these hybrids now. The idea of a "self funded" - members pay - freenet has even been discussed on the NPTN listserv. In recent weeks 4 varients on the theme of civic nets were announced. 1 - PALO ALTO WEEKLY GOES ON-LINE ON THE INTERNET For more information contact: paweekly@netcom.com This newspaper has decided to go on line with a twist. "The Palo Alto Weekly has been testing its Internet "presence" for the last month, and over 2,000 different Internet computer systems have accessed it, even though no public announcement had been made about its availability. In addition to the contents of each issue, which includes news, entertainment listings, movie and restaurant reviews, open house listings and real estate transactions, the text of past issues will be available.....Readers may also communicate with the newspaper and send letters to the editor. Under development are community-oriented "news groups," which will permit readers to post messages and opinions about community issues and allow local organizations to make information available electronically. The Palo Alto Weekly is on World Wide Web, with a URL address of http://www.service.com/PAW/home.html. --------------------------------------- 2. SV-PAL OFFERS INTERNET ACCESS FOR $20 PER *YEAR*!! All the talk and promotion for the information highway has companies and investment groups scrambling to determine their part in this new age for communications. Much of the attention is focused on how the network will be organized, architected and constructed. But more important is who will it serve, what is its benefits and how can it be used. Answers to these issues are more likely to come from the efforts of groups like SV-PAL, the Silicon Valley - Public Access Link, when it opens its doors in late February. SV-PAL is committed to increasing the numbers of people in Silicon Valley that access and benefit from on-line information. SV-PAL's three fold objectives: o Provide broader on-line access to local information, o Provide on-line access to global information through the Internet and o Educate people about on-line resources, goes to the heart of determining the purposes and values for the coming age of communications. Because SV-PAL is so committed to expanding the access to on-line information beyond the present base of users, a comprehensive menuing interface was developed to simplify the user interface. One of its most amazing attributes is how the resources of the Internet are made available without technical education on UNIX shell commands for users. Preparation for SV-PAL's general roll out at the end of February has been progressing for about a year. Over 100 users have been in a Beta Test since October of 1993. By March SV- PAL plans to make available to individuals and households full local information and Internet access for a twenty dollar annual fee. Special arrangements for independent accounts for minors will also be available. There are no time based usage charges although individual sessions will be limited to one hour of connect time in order to provide equity of access. Local information will include items like city council agendas, schedules for cultural attractions, schedules for youth activities and sports programs as well as information of a more commercial nature. Later, SV-PAL expects to offer a geographical data base that allows for graphically locating events, specific activity routes and any other graphical information. Global information is provided through access to the Internet: o Electronic Mail to the 20+ million Internet subscribers around the world, o Telnet connections to remote hosts, o FTP, WWW and Gopher access to remote data bases, o News net access to the thousands of news topics carried on the Internet. Even though its doors are not yet officially open, SV-PAL became instrumental to at least one part of the world's largest information resource (the Internet) when it offered the first Gopher service to the new California Legislative Data Base in January just days after the data became available to the Internet. In its first week of existence almost 1000 inquiries were made through this Gopher. Most of these were from people at other Internet hosts pointing their Gophers at SV-PAL's Gopher for the information. SV-PAL plans to locate public access terminals with some limitations on the functions provided at various public locations around the south bay. At one of these terminals people can experience accessing data remotely as well as getting information about what is happening in the Silicon Valley. Although inspired by the success of freenets, SV-PAL is a significantly new type of on-line experiment. SV-PAL is designed to be self sustaining. Other freenets have been spectacularly successful. But, typically they depend upon a large institutional or corporate sponsor. SV-PAL is planned to be self sustaining. Chartered as a 501(c)(3) non profit corporation ...... The volunteer staff of over 30 people come from Silicon Valley's most respected companies. For additional info contact --Bill Selmeier ------------------------------------- 3. PUBLIC LIBRARY OFFERS 80 TERMINALS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET Here 60 miles north of San Francisco, our Santa Rosa Public library announced free public access to the internet starting in March, the only one in the state of CA. This has been brought about through a State Grant and is in concert with our State University System. Not only will there be 80 terminals located throught our public library system, there will be eight dialup lines for people to connect from home or business. Patrick Laherty -------------------------------------- 4. THE LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY AND INFORMATION NETWORK (LACIN) is planning to use INFO LINE, the Information and Referral Federation of L.A. County, as its basis. Info Line was recently converted from print to a CD ROM database designed for professional Human Service use. Now we will add a simplified overlay for public access via modem. Info Line developed a taxonomy of human services that has become the national standard. It has over a thousand search words and new ones are regularly added. You can write for more information to: Genevieve Marcus ---------------------------------------- In addition the first " Inner City " training center for GII based jobs training opened in the South Bronx on Valentines Day. WILLOW OPPORTUNITY CENTER WILLOW WILL OFFER NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN THE INTERACTIVE AGE USING THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAYS AND FOCUS ON INNER CITY EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT For more information Point your WWW client to HTTP://Shebute.com/Projects/Willow/Willow.HTML _______________________________________________________________ ============================================== NETWORKS and COMMUNITY is a public service of FUTURE DATA; a partnership of researchers and research system designers. For commercial services contact Gwyneth Store - circa@io.org Net facilities for the preparation of this newsletter are provided by the DISTRIBUTED KNOWLEDGE PROJECT - York University - Canada Back issues are archived through the kindness of the staff at the WELL : gopher->gopher.well.sf.ca.us->Community ->Civic Nets->Networks&... "subscriptions" are available through the generosity of the listowner for the RRE NEWS SERVICE: subscribe by sending e-mail to rre-request@weber.ucsd.edu) with a SUBJECT LINE reading "subscribe ". Additional distribution is assisted by the managers and owners of NET-HAPPENINGS, COMMUNET, & the CANADIAN FREENET listservs This newsletter is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN and may be used as you see fit. To contribute items or enguire about this newsletter contact Sam Sternberg .