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This issue of Netweaver was distributed in October 1985
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Volume 1, Number 3 ---CONTENTS--- October 1, 1985
1 - Masthead and Index
2 - ENA Update
by Lisa Carlson
3 - Future Mail, Part I
by Billye Lemon
4 - Future Mail, Part II
by Billye Lemon
5 - Conference Report: "Chronicle"
by Stefanie Kott
6 - Computer Conferencing Is Resisted
by Micheal Gilson
7 - Would You Work in a Place Like This?
by Susanna Opper
8 - Telecommunications: Love It Or Lose It
by Brock Meeks
9 - Byte Gets CoSy on BIX
by Mark Szpakowski
10 - Mindspeak
by Catharine Vinson
11 - Electronic Socialization
by Andy Abramson
12 - The International Packet Switch Stream
by Joichi Ito
13 - Move over Hypertext, Here Comes Hypermedia
by George Por
14 - Book Review
by Lisa Carlson
ENA UPDATE
by Lisa Kimball
The most important ENA Activity this month has been planning our fall conference
USING THE MEDIUM
Washington, D.C.
November 7-10
By now you should be able to find details about the program, who should attend, and registration materials in our EBROCHURE on your home system (the porter who brings you NETWEAVER can direct you to the right place). If you need information or would like a copy of the printed brochure when it is available, you can
call our conference information contact, Kate Wholey, at (703) 247-8301.
This is going to be an APPLICATIONS-focused conference. We are gathering people with experience USING THE MEDIUM in business organizations, government agencies, educational institutions, community services, and entrepreneurial ventures, as well as for personal networking and recreation. We will be sharing information, proposals, and questions for managers, consumers, vendors, policy makers, and folks who are just plain curious and excited about networking via computer.
This will also be a *great* chance for us to meet the people we've been talking to online! You'll want to BE THERE!
At our first symposium last April, we decided to spend a few months thinking and talking about what an association like ENA could and should *do* for the medium and its users--and then plan for ENA's future at our fall conference. ENA's Interim
Organization Team is currently working on an agenda of possibilities, issues, and decisions which need to be addressed by the organization. If *you* have ideas and suggestions, this would be a great time to get them on the table for discussion
and ACTION.
Many of ENA's interests are reflected in this issue of NETWEAVER. The history of other networked industries suggests that STANDARDS are one of the key factors in supporting growth. An article on "Future Mail" reports on the implications of the
X.400 standard for computer conferencing. Other articles about future technology cover the problems of networking internationally and the potential of integrating hypertext with other media. This issue also contains our first roundup of
proposed legislation in the area of Telelaw. You will find intriguing hypotheses about electronic socialization, one cause of resistance to using the medium, and the phenomenon of rapport online. You can learn how one consultant sets up new networks, how BYTE is getting into the CoSy system, and how an online
journalist is covering the impact of AIDS on society. I'm always impressed by what's going on in our intersystem network!
Harlan Cleveland calls the marriage of computers and telecommunications the "central event of our time" in his new book, THE KNOWLEDGE EXECUTIVE, which is reviewed in this issue. I'm looking forward to a lot more discussions online and at our conference about *specific* effects of this central event on individuals, organizations, and society. I hope you'll join ENA and participate!
FUTURE MAIL, Part I
E.T. Will Find his Phone Number with X.400
by Billye Lemon
As part of "Electronic Messaging Week '85", the Electronic Mail Association sponsored a one-day seminar on "A Preview of the Next Decade". I attended as a representative of the Electronic Networking Association and as a guest of EMA. Attendance was over 200 people. Ninety percent of the attendees were from vendor companies. It was an industry gathering--an industry that appears to be highly volatile, young, and (they said) profitable. The industry is continually being challenged to meet the needs of the consumer by a technology which is
developing at a very rapid pace. Its 10-year history has been so fast-paced that projecting 5 to 10 years ahead is risky at best.
Yet, I think you will find the preview exciting. Observe an industry which, while still in the process of providing adequate definitions for itself (what actually is "electronic mail"?) is at the same time visioning in such a way as to outstrip
currently adequate definitions.
Two recurrent themes surfaced from major players in the industry: the POTENTIAL created by the establishment of the X.400 protocol, and the NEED to respond to these projected developments.
The X.400 protocol has created a *standard* for the industry. This standard has now made it possible for the development of CONNECTIVITY--the potential to connect those approximately 200 public "message transfer systems" carriers with each other and with the approximately 6,500 private electronic mail systems.
*Global* electronic communications not before possible to this extent should, in the next decade or less, become a reality.
Suppose a person with access to his corporation's private e-mail system also has access to The Source. And suppose he wants to contact a client in Saudi Arabia who has access to his own business's internal electronic messaging system and also to The Meta Network. How does this person send a message to his client? It will be possible; these links are being developed. But what about the "mechanics" of sending the message?
That "sender" will need a "directory," like a phone book, so that he has a way of learning WHO is accessible through electronic mail, and HOW to address the "letter." The directory, which the industry will need to develop, was best defined as the "frame" which would make sense out of these new capabilities.
The tremendous challenge of keeping a world-wide e-mail directory up to date, and its potential cost--these are further examples of the challenge which must be defined, refined, and developed.
FUTURE MAIL, Part II
Universal Mail Box:
From "User Friendly" to Inseparable Companion
by Billye Lemon
If international electronic connections are not accessed with an ease akin to direct-dial telephoning, an ease to which we have quickly become accustomed, then it will not be meeting its potential: It will not be *accepted* by the users. The envisioned result is a multi-faceted workstation, a one-stop message center, which is already being developed. The "universal mail box" concept aims to make it possible to send and receive from *one* workstation a telex, a facsimile, a voice message, or an electronic message--or a *combination* of these.
By sitting down at one terminal and dialing in with one access code, a person should receive notice of what incoming mail he has from all different sources and systems at once!
After logging on, a couple of short lines will notify the user that he has messages waiting from several different sources. It will be up to the electronic mail industry--the carrier--to provide access and routing from one system to another--without
loss and without delay. Wow!
But there's more! Because when the user sits down to send an electronic message, he will also have the choice, remember, of *how* he wants to send it. For example, suppose John, by pushing one button, accesses the communications system and places a "call" to Mary by using the hand-receiver attached to
his computer. If Mary isn't in, he can then type in a quick message such as, "Call Me". Then, if he wants to relay more at that time and is much more comfortable talking than typing the message, he can switch to *voice* transmission (like an
answering machine). When Mary comes back and sits down to retrieve her messages, she will see the note on the screen and then also a notice that she has a voice message waiting.
This multi-faceted communications workstation is what the users will see. What the industry foresees now is the multi-media terminal which answers a need, and will make these new technologies an *integral* partner in the daily activities of
the corporation; a corporate "work horse." And, as much as possible, the life of existing equipment should be extended.
By the 1990's the key word will be CONVERSION. If Mary's company is still using older equipment and she does not yet have voice-receiver capabilities, then conversion is necessary. The carriers will need to be able to convert transmission from one mode to another, so that Mary can receive that voice message as a written message.
Does it sound like dreaming? Panelists were VPs, managers, or directors, of sales, marketing, applications, etc. from GTE, ITT, Northern Telecom, MCI, IBM, Digital, Citibank (which has 7 internal e-mail systems!), speaking for an industry which seeks to establish fast, reliable "message handling systems".
Out to make a dollar? Yes, of course, and they say e-mail is increasing anywhere from 50% to almost 100% a year. With 7 million personal computers in place now, within the next decade every other professional (half) will have a terminal available. Not only will the equipment be in place, but asynchronous communication will not be *that* expensive; just an add-on which occupies only 10% of the work space of a computer. And the potential can carry over into developing countries. Now "saddled with the need to catch up with a technology which is 30 - 40 years old--the telephone", or overloaded telex systems, these countries have the option of choosing to bypass the "catch-up" game and instead take advantage of the newest communications systems being developed--at a level of sophistication and cost adapted to their particular situation.
The challenge for electronic mail carriers, as it is for computer conferencing systems, is to educate the public.
-----
Author's Note: Billye Lemon is a manager at The Meta Network where she works on public relations, training, and user support.
CONFERENCE REPORT: Mike Greenly's "Chronicle"
by Stefanie Kott
"Chronicle" (A Walk Through the Shadow of AIDS), a Mike Greenly special report appearing on Parti on The Source, might better be subtitled a Tour (de force). Mike opened "Chronicle" before Rock Hudson was known to have AIDS with the following quote:
The more I learn about the AIDS epidemic, the more I
realize it's one of the key stories of the decade.
Ironically, the human and personal side of the story--
and its accelerating effects on our society--is
largely ignored and unreported...
Mike takes "Chronicle" readers along as he creates a human and personal side of AIDS by interviewing doctors, patients, patients' friends, lawyers, researchers and the public. He reports on AIDS benefits and theatre that deal with AIDS as a theme. And he weaves in and out of his themes, back and forth from one "Chronicle" highlight to another.
For those of us who are unfamiliar with the disease, Mike interviews Dr. Ron Grossman, who labels AIDS an epidemic and says that "the 10,000 cases in the U.S. today could become 1,000,000 cases by 1990-2000." Grossman discusses the evolution of the disease from its first-known occurrence in 1961, and explains research currently under way with a drug called isoprinosine.
Readers meet "Cliff" who speaks about his relationship with his lover "Aaron" both before and after Aaron learned he had AIDS. Among the terrors Cliff and Aaron faced as fear of AIDS spread was the rumored five-year incubation period and the calculation and recalculation of their time of mutual fidelity. We learn how they discovered Aaron's disease and how they shop for a cure. And we listen to Cliff as he says to his unknown audience:
I have been struck by how helpful it has been to me
for people in my office, people I know casually, to
just acknowledge that they know it's difficult, that
it needn't be hidden. One of the hardest things about
the disease is the underground quality of it. That
somehow it's not legitimate.
Mike lets us see how difficult it is for doctors to deal with AIDS patients in his interview with Dr. Paul Stepak, who points out the human angle on doctors:
My impression is that many in the gay community are
suspicious that medical doctors in general are not
sympathetic to AIDS patients, and to problems of gays.
I can say that, beyond any problem of gay people, it
is extremely difficult to deal with p-e-o-p-l-e who
would otherwise be young and healthy and who are under
a death sentence... That is very hard to cope with.
Wade, a gay prostitute, rivets the "Chronicle" audience with his bravado and seeming lack of concern for either his vulnerability to AIDS or the possibility of his being a carrier of it. In graphic detail, Wade unveils the ins and outs of hustling before and after the AIDS phenomenon. We also meet one of Wade's clients, who explains why he values Wade, while he also questions the plausibility of continuing to see him in light of the AIDS threat. And in a later interview, we learn his decision.
At any moment, "Chronicle" readers might sign on to POTS (Parti on The Source) and find a new, unpredictable twist in Mike Greenly's "walk through the shadow of AIDS." Or at any moment readers might write or read "Chronicle Public" comments. "Chronicle Public", the forum Mike created for his readers to discuss his articles and the AIDS phenomenon, has many high-key moments, as gays and straights hash through the issues.
Many of Mike's readers join him in hoping that the human and personal accounts that make up "Chronicle" become a book.
Unquestionably, if there were a public-service award for online journalism, "Chronicle" would be the frontrunner on the list.
COMPUTER CONFERENCING IS RESISTED
One Person's Opinion
by Micheal Gilson
The long-term user of this medium finds it difficult to communicate the true beauty of computer conferencing to the novice. A number of possible explanations for this have been stated. They deal with individual problems and prejudices, and are all valid. There is, however, another force one must consider. Mass communication has always had its detractors. There is the invention of movable type and subsequent fear on the part of the ruling class of that time that they would be overthrown by the serfs.
There was a time when churches retained almost a monopoly on written communication. Without accusing anyone not here to defend himself, I must point out that on the surface, it would appear that their motivation also was to keep people in "their places".
In modern times, there are unenlightened countries that try to block radio broadcasts originating from outside their borders from reaching the general population.
The reaction is not so hard to understand. Surely each of us has felt uncomfortable when others in the room talk *about* a person instead of *to* that person. Each of us has some secrets we don't want to share with the general public, and so a conversation that revolves around an individual without his inclusion is bound to incite some resentment.
One can extend this concept to those who rule today. Our officials, be they civil servants in official government agencies or managers in the corporate establishment, know the meaning of "Heavy is the head that wears the crown."
Particularly in America, our efforts are competitive. Parties compete to get elected; managers to get promoted; workers to get the next nod up the ladder.
In a society where "Knowledge is Power" has taken on a new perspective, who can blame the poor swivel-bottomed official for seeing something dangerous in "the public" communicating in a medium he hasn't learned? How do children feel when they think adults are discussing their faults in the next room? Therefore, it is time that the computer networking and conferencing industry came out of the closet and recognized itself as a mechanism of social change. Naturally we see articles in the
established news media that attempt to identify all networking with the harmful efforts of the minority that abuses the medium. We even hear the demeaning term "antihacking" from quarters that should know better. They feel that we threaten them. In the case of news media, there are always circulation and subscription figures to consider.
Large companies might suffer revenue losses if individuals using initiative start producing at peak efficiency and compete with them on ground they can't monopolize. So expect public relations attacks from there.
But their fears are nearsighted. Governments, corporations, and indeed all of the institutions that compose our society are populated by individuals. As we provide communication facilities, we strengthen individuals and the groups and organizations they foster. We are only providing the typewriters, copiers, and envelopes of the latest technology. In the end, those who see computer conferencing as a threat to the establishment will come to view it as an assistant. And I hope to see the day that the very people who advocate anti-networking legislation will publicly apologize here!
-----
Author's note: Micheal Gilson is a professional programmer who
has been in the EDP business for more than 15 years. He likes
to think of himself as a generalist.
COULD YOU WORK IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?
by Susanna Opper
My electronic networking friends often ask me: "Can you make a living at this?" My answer is... **YES**, if you have a relaxed definition of "making a living." At least your definition needs to be relaxed for now. I think things will change soon.
I've been an electronic networking consultant for two years. To give you an idea of what that means, let's look a case study-- one that involves some people you may know.
Some weeks before the Symposium in New York last Spring, I had lunch with Tom Miezejeski, then Director of Continuing Professional Education at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Tom and ENA member Ed Yarrish were working on a project for the AICPA that involved an electronic network. They had an innovative idea. Rather than tell the association about how useful such a network **could** be, they planned to set one up and demonstrate their idea. Tom wanted to know if I could help.
Naturally I said YES. (Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this article!) Next, Tom and I met and worked out the specifics of "Micronet," the name we gave the network.
"Who is the audience?" I asked. What is AICPA's objective? How will they know when they reach it? Who will pay? How will new members be enrolled? Is training necessary? Do the intended members have computers with modems? (You would be shocked at how many networks fail, or teeter on the edge of failure, because the intended audience isn't equipped.) How will we facilitate the conferences? And, specifically, what topics will members be interested in, so we can set something up in advance? How long will the pilot run? And what are the next steps?
With my client's objectives in hand, I made a blueprint of the network. (I actually draw pictures on my Macintosh.) Since this network would have CPAs as members, it seemed important to have things in their proper place... Other business communities might not care a lot about logic and a reasonable structure, but I hypothesized this group would. And they do.
So we set up some conferences. Since the network's purpose was to provide a forum for CPAs who didn't know each other to share information about using microcomputers in an accounting practice, the topics included hardware, software, tax and audit applications.
And, of course, we had the old standbys--"Forum" where people could post information for the whole community, "Questions" where answers would be found, and "Micronet" itself for system notices and to be the main branch.
Although MICRONET is less than three months old, we already have some pretty impressive results. Currently more than 150 people have said they want to join the network, although not all have signed on yet. We find here, as with most networks, that there is a large gap between the people who sign up and those who actually sign on. The gap is bridged with a lot of phone calls.
We've also found here--as I find on all my networks--that requests for information are almost always responded to, usually within hours. Software programs for accountants have been reviewed in depth; we've had a cocktail party (a little more reserved than ENA had on Unison, but still a good gathering); and we now have members looking for new ways to use the system.
An experiment that turned out well was a "Kickoff Poll" in which network members were asked to describe their hardware, software and their reasons for joining the network. Just to show CPAs are like everyone else, MICRONET members were more interested in connecting with other CPAs to share practice information than
they were in learning about hardware or software.
Now about earning a living. Tom thought the idea was so appealing, he's left AICPA to promote electronic networking for associations.
Next network, please.
-----
Susanna Opper is a New York City telecommunications consultant
who designs and implements communication systems for
organizations. Exxon, Avon, and Coca-Cola are also on her list
of clients. Before starting her own business in 1983, she was a
communications specialist with Exxon. She can be reached on The
Source and Unison with her full name. She's SOPPER at NYIT
where MICRONET runs.
Tom Miezejeski can be reached on NYIT as TOMM.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Love It Or Lose It
The following is a special to ENA's NETWEAVER publication.
All rights belong to the author, Brock N. Meeks
(c) copyright 1985
There was a time, not so long ago, when micro-based telecommunications was a subset of the entire computing community. Telecommunications was reserved for a group of people fond of late-night keyboard sessions, but nothing "serious" was developing in the world of online telecommunications. Oh, how time flies.
In California, a Los Angles sysop became an Information Age celebrity because he was arrested for activities taking place on his bulletin board. Tom Tcimpidis' Mog-Ur BBS was confiscated (up to and including backup disks) by security officers of Pacific Bell because someone openly posted stolen AT&T and Sprint telephone account numbers.
After a long and heated debate between Pacific Bell and Tcimpidis' lawyer (not to mention hundreds of online participants discussing the case's ethical and legal
implications) the phone company relented and decided not to carry its case to the courts.
The case became a rallying point for those concerned with online "electronic freedom of speech." When the phosphor settled, California Assemblywoman Gwen Moore introduced an Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA-9) that, if passed, will guarantee electronic communications the same protections provided to mail and telephone conversation. Federal and state legislation affecting telecommunications is being written, introduced and passed--right under the cursor of the online community. Some of this legislation will change the nature of telecommunications immediately; all of it will, in some way, shape the evolution of telecommunications.
As one online wag stated: "This is no time to let sleeping dogmas lie."
The statement "Information Is Power" would draw little debate. Combine that power of information with telecommunications and you begin to see why the area of "telelaw" is one of the hottest issues around.
Of the many areas in the telecommunications industry being challenged by legal actions and championed by lobbyist groups, three key issues are recognized: the privacy rights of electronic communications, illegal computer access, and the Federal regulation of data communications.
The following is a listing of the pending legislation on the Federal level. Not included is a bill about to be introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VA) that will, if passed, amend the Wire Tap Act. Sen. Leahy's bill is known as the Electronic
Communication Privacy Act of 1985. Leahy contends that there must be a Federal policy that protects what is being transmitted, not the way it is transmitted.
So rise up, ye modem minutemen, an active part on the behalf of telecommunications is needed--now.
There are several bills on Capitol Hill that deal with telecommunications. Listed below are the bills that have been introduced to Congress at press time.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
H.R. 293: Impact on Privacy
H.R. 296: Privacy Protection
H.R. 642: Telecommunications Policy Coordination Act
H.R. 744: National Information Policy
H.R. 745: National Technology Foundation
H.R. 930: Systems Protection
H.R. 995: Medical Records Protection
H.R. 1001: Computer Fraud
H.R. 1175: International Telecommunications Competition
H.R. 2889: Computer Security Training
THE SENATE
S. 440: Computer Systems Protection
S. 610: Access of Government Computers
S. 728: Japanese Telecommunications Products Prohibited
S. 786: Information Age Commission
S. 1305: Bar Computer Porn
Where to ask:
The best way to determine the status of pending legislation is
to contact the Bills Status Office, Capitol, Washington, DC
20515, (202) 225-1772.
By searching a computerized database (you must supply a subject keyword to search on) this office can answer any questions you have regarding a piece of legislation.
Another helpful office is the Congressional Information Service, 1701 Wisconsin Ave., Washington, DC 20014, (301) 654-1550. A useful publication of this office, the Congressional Information Service Index, can supply you with information regarding congressional committee research on the topic of your choice, or
identify the availability of relevant congressional hearing transcripts.
-----
Author's note: Brock Meeks is a San Diego-based free lance
writer. He is a contributing editor for PROFILES MAGAZINE.
BYTE GETS CoSy ON BIX
by Mark Szpakowski
CoSy is a Computer Conferencing system rapidly gaining prominence in Canada, where it was developed at the University of Guelph, and in the United States, where it will be the host software for BYTE Magazine's BIX (Byte Information eXchange). It supports mail, including some inter-network mail; multi-party private "conversations"; open and closed conferences; software downloads using Kermit or Xmodem protocols; and NAPLPS encoding of graphics. Distributed conferencing, allowing users on different machines to participate in one large conference, will be supported soon; this is already taking place between Guelph and the European COM system.
CoSy itself has a comparatively sweet, micro feeling. It presents itself very simply and unobtrusively; hitting RETURN will usually do the intuitively obvious thing, and can suffice to take you through an entire session. This ease of use is a major reason for BYTE's choosing CoSy, along with its being written in the C language and running under the highly portable Unix operating system (it has been implemented on machines ranging from the AT&T Unix PC to an IBM 3081). Unlike the Participate software (used by The Source and Unison, for example) which creates a tree structure, allowing indefinite branching of conferences off of conferences, CoSy is two-tiered: there are "conferences", and conferences can have multiple "topics". It is possible to comment on messages, and to follow such comments backwards and forwards, thus creating threads within a topic, as well as to search for text strings within a topic.
At Guelph, the university community has free access to CoSy, which is also being used to carry out much of the University's work. However, 400 non-Guelph users from 28 countries add a larger, international, flavor. It's remarkable to converse on a daily basis with people in Switzerland and Finland! Recently, a scientific conference in Europe was preceded by simultaneous preparatory conferences on both CoSy and COM. CoSy at Guelph is thus a local system which also serves as a global host.
McGraw-Hill Inc., BYTE's parent company, is using CoSy for internal communications and for BIX. BIX is currently in beta test with over 2000 users, and is already tying together BYTE's East- and West-coast offices. The host hardware is an Arete multi-processing Unix system with 88 ports. Commercial usage will begin sometime in October, with local access through McGraw-Hill's DRINET available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston at evening rates of $6/hour, and remote access through Tymnet at $8/hour evenings.
George Bond, managing editor for electronic publishing and communication, stresses that BIX's focus on microcomputers will differentiate it from other services. Considering the extent and quality of BYTE's subscriber base, this should be a really
exciting network for the computeroids among us, who will be able not only to share information about microcomputer hardware and software but also to correspond directly with BYTE editors and writers. This in turn will inevitably affect the nature of the publishing services offered by BYTE and McGraw-Hill.
-----
Contacts:
CoSy Systems Group, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario,
Canada N1G 2W1. (519) 824-4120, ext. 3065 (Tom Smith).
Byte Magazine, 70 Main Street, Peterborough NH 03458
(603) 924-9281 (George Bond).
-----
Author's note: Mark Szpakowski is a software developer residing
in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He cofounded Community Memory in 1972;
operates Dharmanet, an international network of Buddhists, as
well as a local BBS; and will chair the "Regional and Local
Networks" session at the November ENA conference.
MINDSPEAK
by Catharine Vinson
Words come into being of necessity. The oil patch has its monkey cages. Mathematicians have fuzzy sets. Typesetters have widows and orphans. Teleconferencers have a lexicon, too. One that grows daily, as more people discover "green screens," online" feels like to them.
"Mindspeak" is one attempt to describe the particular type of communication that often develops among conferencers. The process of inventing the term began with a letter. Written nearly two years ago, that electronic letter was a first, groping attempt to explain to a doubting Thomas what a few of us shared in Delphi's real time conferencing environment. It was a first attempt to label what some of us thought we were experiencing but had been too "rational"--and maybe too shy--to mention.
The naming took a long time. "Rapport." "Bonding." "Empathy." It was like creating a thesaurus for a word that did not exist. Then suddenly the word came: mindspeak. I don't remember which one of us said it first, but it fit.
But "it" lacked a tidy definition, so some of us continued to poke and prod. Yet we hesitated to analyze. I think we were afraid we'd lose it if we scrutinized too closely. Still, I wondered and started a conference called "Mindspeak" on a new
system called Unison. Did people from other networks ever feel it? Was it an isolated phenomenon limited to real time conferencing?
The phenomenon was not isolated. People who had never participated in Delphi's "Conference" wrote of their experiences. The term--and the experience--expanded. Interestingly, the attempts at definition in that conference always took a back seat to the process itself. People didn't talk about mindspeak so much as they *did* it. The doing added to the richness of a process that becomes recursive with time and practice. More cyclic than linear, mindspeak seems to ebb and flow according to its own rules. It can't be switched on and off. All it seems to demand is that one "leaves his ego outside the door" and listens.
A year later, on STC, I started another "Mindspeak". Would it be different? Would the two conferences communicate?
To date, the conference on STC is very different from the conference I created on Unison. Far more analytical, more intellectual, it's punctuated with some doubt: Does mindspeak really exist? Is it real or some sort of wishful thinking?
What do the differences prove? I don't know. Yet I'm convinced mindspeak occurs throughout the "nets." Some people simply don't "get it." Some don't want it. Some misuse it. But it's there. For some of us, it is "how we were meant to
communicate:" on-land and up-here.
Still, what is it?
I don't think anyone knows. Yet. I don't think mindspeak is contingent on the medium. The medium merely serves as an enabling condition, albeit a superb one. I suspect there may be some neurological basis to mindspeak. While meaning is not stimulus-bound, the brain responds to the written and spoken word quite differently, creating electromagnetic patterns tied to both content and context. It would follow that the patterns created in response to the stimulus of words scrolling across a screen are rather different from those resulting from spoken or traditionally-written words. Too, teleconferencing alters the stimulus threshold. As a result of the speed at which information is presented and processed, "information overload" occurs more rapidly.
Finally, there probably is a correlation between mindspeak and the intense focusing and concentration that results when we try to glean meaning in an environment of partial sensory deprivation. We don't have the usual clues and cues that lead to what we call "meaning." We have to fill in the gaps, listen with the proverbial "third ear" if we are to form the gestalt.
For me, the gestalt is more than the meaning of another person's words. It *is* the other person. Because of that, mindspeak's meaning probably can't be fixed. Mindspeak is as varied as the people who experience the process. For now though, I'll define the essence and attraction of mindspeak simply as a "touching" and an imprinting that goes far deeper than skin: a coming to know another person--not as a bodiless "transmitter" or "receiver"--but as the individual, the "self." An inadequate dictionary definition, but good enough until someone finds the *right* word.
-----
Author's note: Catharine Vinson (a.k.a. Grendel) is a
professional writer from Houston, Texas. She is also a Helper
on Parti on The Source.
ELECTRONIC SOCIALIZATION
by Andy Abramson
Are you an electronic communications junkie? If you are reading this, then to some extent you are. Maybe you just use Parti on Unison or on The Source. Perhaps you take a dip in "The WELL" or open your EIES on the NJIT system. But all in all you *do* use the networks for some purpose.
But what are those purposes? Is it for professional use? Personal knowledge? Recreation? Does the concept of "electronic socialization" appeal to you?
It is part of human nature to socialize with others. Not all socializing has to be face to face. It can be electronic. The concept of electronic socialization is most evident in both conferences and in using CHAT on The Source, CB or CONFERENCE on Compuserve, SPEAKEASY or PHONE on Unison, or just "chatting" with a sysop on a local bulletin board system.
What does electronic socialization do for you? For starters, it lets you make new acquaintances. This leads to new business and personal relationships, maybe friendships, and possibly partnerships. Through these social encounters you are able to develop a wider field of understanding of others. You also have the occasion to speak/type your mind and distribute these thoughts via the electronic media at you disposal.
Anybody out there remember the party line telephone and the news that could get passed via that medium? What about CB radio and that '70s craze? All day and all night people interacted with one another on matters that interested one another.
With electronic socialization at our disposal, we have the ability and the desire to help one another and help ourselves. We have the ability to communicate to diverse groups through networking. Our "Porters" are being challenged because they are also serving as editors, gate keepers of information that can be moved from system to system. But in doing so, they are establishing new links along the information chain. Links which will bring together many individuals who, without this medium, would not know of one another.
As the medium grows and expands, and we learn how to utilize what is available, "electronic socialization" will make many new friends for the global community of networkers.
THE INTERNATIONAL PACKET SWITCH STREAM
Your Gateway to the World
by Joichi Ito
Having begun my telecommunications career in Tokyo, I am often amazed at the rather isolationist attitude America has toward communications. It is understandable, considering the extent of the services available in the US, but for *real* international communications, one must enter the International Packet Switch Stream (IPSS).
The IPSS is the worldwide packet switch that allows anyone from any country with telecommunications to enter an NUA (like a telephone number) and be connected to hosts all over the world. The IPSS is a packet switch that converts your baud rate and protocol so you don't have to worry about compatibility. This is the system that all overseas users use to access the systems in the United States. Telenet, Tymnet, Uninet, etc. are packet systems, but the true power of the network is often overlooked by the casual observer. Unlike Europe, the gateways are just that, gateways. Like a telephone without a phone book. Quite a powerful telephone in fact.
In Europe alone there are several thousand databases ranging from BLAISE (British Library Automated Information Services) to university databases. Many are supported by the European Space Agency and are indexed on a network called EURONET DIANE. On this system are thousands of databases and a service called
HOSTES. This is an NUA that can be accessed for free. The system runs in five different languages (whatever your first command is in) and gives you NUAs, descriptions, and contacts for all of its databases. It allows you to actually *search* for a database service that fits your needs (DIALOG being just *one* of them).
Europe also has its share of communication systems. They have PRESTEL (a UK national videotex system), university computers that become havens for telecom hackers, and TELECOM GOLD or DIALCOM UK. These can all be accessed from Telenet, Tymnet, etc. So, what's the catch? The catch is, you must get an account on your local network (Telenet, Tymnet, etc.) and you must pay for your communication charges. Unless, of course, you are one of those lucky enough to have access to one of the international networks like ARPANET, JANET (Joint Academic Net), SERCNET (Science Education Research Council) or BITNET.
European computers aren't the only things you can access. As Izumi told us in his article on Japan [Netweaver, Volume 1, Number 2] ASCII will soon have a system on IPSS. The European telex network can be accessed via IPSS. In Australia, OTC (Overseas Telecommunications Corp.) and MIDAS can be accessed. There is a whole world online and available out there!
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John A. Coll of the British MEP Software Unit was my source for the information on Europe. Look for articles by him in future issues of Netweaver.
MOVE OVER HYPERTEXT, HERE COMES HYPERMEDIA
George Por
Do you remember my story about VCRs and CCing in the last Netweaver? I talked about the Educational Excellence Through Telecommunications grant program, a large scale ($10 million per year for 15 years) project funded by The Annenberg School of Communications and managed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The project allocates funds to develop innovative telecom applications in higher education.
I've just read reports of the research currently sponsored by Annenberg/CPB and thought you would enjoy learning about the one I found the most promising. Brown University's Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS) is exploring ways to visualize abstract concepts, and is developing collaboration
between faculty and students as they browse through computer "worlds" of information and simulation.
IRIS is creating prototypes of software to be used as educational tools in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and science. The software tools are being developed in a "hypertext/hypermedia" framework. The project is obviously built on Ted Nelson's concepts published many years ago in his "Literary Machines". The IRIS report defines hypertext/hypermedia as follows:
Hypertext is a tool that allows authors to link
written material together in a coherent web of
information. With a hypertext system, authors and
GROUPS OF AUTHORS can create original documents and
link them directly to reference materials, articles
and other manuscripts. [EMPHASIS added - GP]
Colleagues or students can read the author's work and
follow the links to footnoted texts, adding their own
annotations, suggestions for revision, and links to
recommended readings. Like an encyclopedia, hypertext
directs readers to texts that can enrich their
understanding, providing connectivity of ideas.
Unlike an encyclopedia, however, hypertext grants
readers the navigation tools--electronic bridges and
links--to reach the referenced information in an
orderly but nonsequential manner.
Hypermedia extends hypertext's capabilities to include
other media, such as graphics, dynamic animation,
video, laser recordings, photographs and the like.
For example, a music professor teaching a course on
Mozart could prepare a hypermedia corpus containing a
biography of the composer's life with links to musical
scores of Mozart's works, associated laser recordings,
critics' commentaries, and interactive video recording
of The Magic Flute. Students could, in turn,
contribute additional links to the hypermedia corpus,
creating a rich world of information on Mozart and his
music.
I'm enthralled by the perspectives this "hyperworld" opens, both in academia and beyond it. Imagine the ways in which you could play with a toy like this. I'll find out more about how IRIS is doing with this project and get back to you in the next Netweaver. If you happen to read this story on the screen of a computer at Brown University, let me know.
New Book Resource
by Lisa Kimball
THE KNOWLEDGE EXECUTIVE: Leadership in an Information Society, by Harlan Cleveland, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1985. $18.95. 260pp.
Harlan Cleveland's widely read THE FUTURE EXECUTIVE (1972) has had a major influence on managers and their training programs for the past decade. This new book promises to be a keystone for the managers of the next ten years. Cleveland, who is currently Dean of the University of Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey
Institute of Public Affairs, has served as Associate Secretary of State, Ambassador to NATO, and President of the University of Hawaii. He has spent years studying executives and their jobs. THE KNOWLEDGE EXECUTIVE is full of Cleveland's ideas about the implications of the information society for executive work--much of it based on his own extensive experience with technologies, including computer conferencing. He calls the marriage of computers and telecommunications the "central event of our time."
Cleveland identifies several key ideas which can help us think about what the new information environment means for leadership and the executive function:
1. Information is not *like* other resources.
2. The ultimate effect of all knowledge is to organize
things or people, to arrange them in ways that make
them different from the way they were before.
3. There is a distinction between the information
itself and the service of delivering it.
He suggests that we have carried over into our thinking about *information*, concepts which were developed for the management of *things*, e.g. property, depletion, depreciation, monopoly, market economics, the class struggle, and top-down leadership. "The assumptions we have inherited are not producing
satisfactory growth with acceptable equity in either the capitalist West or the socialist East," says Cleveland. The solution? Stop treating information as "just another *thing*, a commodity with pseudophysical properties, and look hard instead at what makes it so special." Some of these special qualities include:
* Information is expandable--in an information society
we trade glut for scarcity. The ultimate limits to
growth of knowledge and wisdom are TIME and the
CAPACITY of people to analyze and think integratively.
* Information is compressible--it can be concentrated,
integrated, summarized, and miniaturized for easier
handling. As a result, the information society is not
resource-hungry because production and distribution
are sparing in their requirements for energy and other
physical resources.
* Information is substitutable--it can replace land,
labor, and capital. "People who use computers hooked
up to telecommunications don't need much real estate
to be efficient... Any machine that can be accessed
by computerized telecommunications doesn't have to be
in your own inventory."
* Information is transportable--there has been a major
dimensional change in both the speed and volume of
human activity because of this change in
transportability of resources. Remoteness is now more
choice than geography.
* Information is diffusive--information is
"aggressive, even imperialistic, in striving to break
out of the unnatural bonds of secrecy in which thing-
minded people try to imprison it. The straightjackets
of public secrecy, intellectual property rights, and
confidentiality of all kinds fit very loosely on this
restless resource."
* Information is shareable--*things* are exchanged but
if I sell you an idea, we both have it. "The
information-rich environment is thus a sharing
environment. That needn't mean an environment without
standards, rules, conventions, or ethical codes. It
does mean the standards, rules, conventions, and codes
are going to be different from those created to manage
the zero-sum bargains of market economics and
traditional international relations."
Cleveland believes that the first task for leaders is to reassess concepts created to deal with problems of the management of *things*, e.g. scarcity, bulk, limited substitutability, expense and trouble of transportation, and ability to hoard. He points out that the characteristics of physical resources made possible hierarchies which are crumbling today--power based on control, influence based on scarcity,
class based on ownership, privilege based on early access to valuable resources, and politics based on geography.
"The explosive fusions of computers and telecommunications are changing the options and opportunities for the generalist leaders and especially for those who lead by getting things done--the executives," says Cleveland. "Those who learn how to achieve access to the bath of knowledge that already envelopes the world will be the future's aristocrats of achievement."