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This issue of Netweaver was distributed in November 1985
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Volume 1, Number 4 ---CONTENTS--- November 1, 1985
1 - Masthead and Index
2 - ENA Update
by Lisa Carlson
3 - THE BENEFITS OF COMPUTER CONFERENCING
by Sylvia Engdahl
4 - THE ELECTRONIC COMPENDIUM
by Roger Bunting
5 - STUDY CIRCLES AND COMPUTER CONFERENCING
by Norman Kurland
6 - HERE COMES THE COMMON GROUND
by Andy Abramson
7 - COMPUTER-RELATED COMMUNICATIONS IN SWEDEN
by Kelley Boan
8 - HAVE LAP, WILL TRAVEL
by Stefanie Kott
9 - A PERSONAL VISION
by David Hughes
10 - ANNOUNCEMENT: ENA F-T-F CONFERENCE
ENA UPDATE
by Lisa Carlson
This issue of NETWEAVER is special for two reasons. First of all, it is a tribute to the power of networking. In the midst of preparing this issue, our "home" system went down for a week because of hardware problems. But one of our intrepid editors set up camp on another system, folks found early drafts of articles stashed away on disks, and we were able to continue working with only a brief interruption. We are more appreciative than ever of Fred Dudden and Participation Systems, Inc. for giving ENA our office beyond space and time on UNISON.
The other thing that makes this a very special issue of NETWEAVER is that participants at ENA's conference in Washington, D.C., USING THE MEDIUM, will be reading it along with the people in our vast intersystem network of electronic conferences on UNISON, PARTI on The Source, The Meta Network, EIES, COM, CoSy/Guelph, Delphi, CompuServe, The WELL, and local BBS systems around the world. We've been very excited about linking networkers from different systems for the first time to share ideas and information about current and future applications of computer conferencing. Many of us will see each other for the first time in D.C., although we have been working closely together for several months. There will also be many new to ENA in D.C. whose experiences we'll get to hear about for the first time. I can't wait!
The NETWEAVER and ENA's conference are both excellent examples of how computer conferencing can be used for getting work done by distributing leadership and responsibility among people with a high quality communication system. The editorial board of NETWEAVER has never had a "meeting" in the traditional sense although our "newsroom" is usually buzzing with activity. We never had a "meeting" of the ENA Conference Planning Committee although more than 25 people worked closely together to plan the program, do the marketing, and deal with all the details and arrangements necessary to manage a conference of this size. We've been able to take up the slack when one of us is busy with something else and involve new people on the team all the way along.
All of this has been made possible by the wonders of asynchronous communication and packet switches
The articles in this issue of NETWEAVER should give us a great place to start our discussions. They have been written by NETWEAVER authors from many different systems and include ideas about applications of computer conferencing in education, business, and social change. You can learn about networking in Sweden, a system soon opening in New England, and how to keep up online while traveling. I hope you'll add *your* ideas to "The Benefits of Computer Conferencing" which you'll find here too.
On behalf of all the editors of NETWEAVER, the fall conference team, and ENA members around the world...
Welcome to our network!
THE BENEFITS OF COMPUTER CONFERENCING
by Sylvia Engdahl
As most of us know too well, telecommunications--other than in a strictly business context--suffers from a bad press image. The general public hears about how it's misused, but rarely about its benefits; when they are mentioned, the focus is usually on value to programmers and hobbyists rather than to users of CC. A few months ago in Parti on the Source I started a conference, "Role of CC", to discuss what the benefits are. One of the things I included was a statement of them in list form.
What follows is an expanded version of that list, which I've revised to include points raised by participants in "Role of CC" and in another Parti conference, "Mindspeak", as well as some I myself thought of after posting my original version. It covers benefits of CC for social and educational purposes, excluding those unique to business use. Wouldn't it be nice if the public could be made aware of all these things?
1. Each individual can communicate with more people via CC than in any other way. This is true not only of those like myself whose face-to-face contacts are limited, but of everyone. No matter how many people you know, you can talk to a lot of additional ones electronically.
2. CC enlarges the circle of an individual's acquaintances not only in terms of numbers, but in terms of variety. In CC, people of all ages and backgrounds meet on equal footing, which is not generally the case in face-to-face contact. In fact, the factors that artificially divide people, including such handicaps as physical disability or unattractiveness, become irrelevant and in some cases even invisible.
3. With CC, geography is no longer relevant to communication (except insofar as phone costs differ). In principle--and in practice for a fortunate few--people in different parts of the world can converse easily as those living in the same city.
4. CC frees communication from the constraints of time. Most people are too busy to meet all the people they'd like to talk to, and in fact the more people they know, the more significant time becomes. With CC, they can communicate at their own convenience (maybe even in the middle of the night) while others do so at theirs.
5. CC brings people with common interests together; those who haven't met anyone nearby who shares their interests can contact others in the same position. This is particularly significant to people who enjoy serious discussions but are limited to a circle of acquaintances among whom only "small talk" is acceptable, and who therefore feel intellectually isolated.
6. Discussions can be better organized, and therefore more focused, in CC than in any but the most formal face-to-face settings.
7. CC allows individuals who have a visual rather than aural orientation toward language, and who therefore communicate better through the written word than through speech, to express themselves more fully than any other interactive process. Though these individuals often have opportunity to express ideas as writers, writing via other media is not interactive; even a letter produces no response for a week or more, and with published writing it's a matter of months before any feedback can be obtained. CC, by eliminating this delay and by allowing many people to take part in a single written discussion, opens the door to a level of written communication that has never before been possible.
8. Ideas can be expressed more fully in CC even by those who don't have a strong personal preference for writing, simply because everyone has a far larger vocabulary in writing than in speaking, and because it is socially acceptable to use a richer vocabulary and sentence structure in written communications than in spoken ones.
9. Many people feel less inhibited when communicating through CC than when speaking. Even to those for whom this is not true, there is less inhibition in teleconferencing than in most face- to-face conversations simply because its social conventions permit people who are not intimately acquainted to discuss their inner feelings in a way not customary at social gatherings. Perhaps for this reason, online friendships are often perceived as being closer than face-to-face ones.
10. CC leads to wider participation by all members of a group than occurs in face-to-face meetings not only because the medium itself is disinhibiting, but because a specific effort is generally made by the discussion leader to be supportive of all contributors. Everyone's comments have equal exposure, and they can be made at any time, without waiting for the more active participants to "be quiet and let someone else speak." Furthermore, since it's known that readers can skip comments that don't interest them, there's no worry about boring others; the audience, if not receptive, will at least be "listening" by choice. (By the same token, a person who does dominate the conversation in a way that bores other participants can be easily tuned out.)
11. The environment in which a person communicates via CC is normally quiet and free of sensory distractions, which leads to greater concentration on the ideas being discussed, and possibly to a mode of thought unlike that in which other forms of communication usually take place.
12. In CC, responses to comments are not as immediate as they are in speech, and can therefore be thought through before they are made. This gives participants a chance to clarify their thoughts before expressing them, which on the whole raises the level of the discussion. Any comments made in haste can be modified or deleted, not only from the record but often before they are seen by the group.
13. CC creates a permanent record of every discussion, which is of great value in going back to review what was said. Ideas don't get lost or forgotten when they are part of such a record. Moreover, newcomers to the discussion don't miss what was said before they arrived, and in fact, the entire exchange of ideas can be of great benefit to readers who encounter it long after its conclusion.
14. CC enhances communication between people who also meet face-to-face. If they have met online before such meetings, they start off at a higher level of involvement than they would if they were strangers, and the productivity of the meeting is therefore increased. On the other hand, face-to-face acquaintances who are separated by distance can stay in touch much more conveniently than by mail or phone.
Author's Note: Sylvia Engdahl, former professional systems
programmer, vendor of TOPS80 Tape Operating System and author of THE
PLANET-GIRDED SUNS: MAN'S VIEW OF OTHER SOLAR SYSTEMS (Atheneum, 1974) plus 11 other books, including the following SF novels (all Atheneum; most
available only in libraries): ENCHANTRESS FROM THE STARS; THE FAR SIDE OF
EVIL; the trilogy THIS STAR SHALL ABIDE / BEYOND THE TOMORROW MOUNTAINS / THE DOORS OF THE UNIVERSE; and JOURNEY BETWEEN WORLDS.
THE ELECTRONIC COMPENDIUM
Integrating CC and F-T-F
by Roger Bunting
One of the great potentials of computer conferencing is its capability for linking thoughtful dialogue, especially for achieving clarity of concepts and ideas. A powerful dimension of that capability is that it can provide a bridge between face- to-face meetings and online conversations, *and* support the publication of an electronic compendium which captures the essence and flow of the dialogue. This article is about a recent experience in which CC was used to provide such a bridge and produce an electronic compendium.
Over the last Fourth of July weekend, there was a f-t-f meeting of a group of 75 persons who were invited to attend the Third Annual Symposium on Organizational Transformation (OT3). It was held at the Hyatt Regency resort complex in Monterey, California. It was also "attended" by several people who were hundreds and even thousands of miles from Monterey, and it has been continued since the Independence Day weekend both online and via paper-copy input by the attendees.
Less than a month after the f-t-f meeting, a bound copy of the Interim Version of an Electronic Compendium was in the hands of the attendees, including those who had participated electronically. Additional input (comments on previous material, new ideas, announcements, etc.) has been solicited from the attendees and participants. The Final Version of an Electronic Compendium of the symposium, integrating the f-t-f, online, and paper-copy input will have been published and distributed by the time this article in online.
This meeting beyond time and space and the publication of an electronic compendium of its proceedings have been made possible by the interactive capability of computer conferencing, the user-friendliness of laptop portable computers, and the fact that the CC medium results in a written record of the discussions.
The process actually began a couple of months prior to the f-t-f meeting. Several discussion items were placed in the Meta:OT conference on The Meta Network, both announcing the plans for the f-t-f meeting and continuing the dialogue about the practice of OT which had begun prior to OT1 in the spring of 1983. Those items and the subsequent online responses to them were downloaded and posted on the wall of the conference room in which the initial plenary session of the Monterey symposium was held.
Attendees at the f-t-f meeting were told that the meeting was being extended to the online community, and they were encouraged to participate in the process of documenting what occurred during their f-t-f sessions and sharing it with the online "attendees" so the latter could participate in the dialogue. An inducement to do this was the fact that they could also get an exposure to the technologies of computer-assisted word-processing and telecommunications. Many of the OT3 symposium attendees had little or no previous hands-on experience with computers of any kind, or were just beginning to use their own recently-acquired personal computers.
An Operations Center was established in a hospitality suite at the resort hotel. Located there were a desk-top computer equipped with printer and 1200 bps modem, and several TRS80 Model 100 computers belonging to the Meta Network staff members. Those laptop computers were used by some of staff who attended various the on-site discussion sessions and recorded what occurred in written summaries in the Model 100s. Some of the laptop computers were kept available in the Operations Center for other people who had either conducted or attended the on- site sessions, to use for preparing their own reports of what had occurred in the sessions, and their reactions to them.
The draft reports prepared in the Model 100s during the day were uploaded to the desktop computer (at 9600 bps) using the Telecommuter file-transfer program. They were then edited and formatted, if necessary, and further uploaded (at 1200 bps), through the telephone in the room, via a local Telenet access node, to the host computer of The Meta Network in Michigan. The reports were posted, as early in the evening as possible, on the Meta:OT conference for viewing by the online participants.
The attendees were told that each day, the new input from the Meta:OT conference, contributed during the previous night, would be posted on the plenary-session bulletin board, so they could see what comments were coming in from the off-site participants. Each morning, the new input from the online participants was downloaded and printed using the printer in the Operations Center. It was then posted on the bulletin board prior to the beginning of the morning plenary session. A simple form was made available to facilitate the on-site attendees' preparation of their hand-written responses to the online comments. The on-site attendees were encouraged to use either those forms (and to drop them off at the Operations Center) or the laptop computers which were available in the Operations Center.
[An interesting dimension of the process was the extent to which it enabled many of the on-site attendees to have their first hands-on experience with a computer, albeit the simple but very user-friendly TRS80 Model 100. The latter was found to be particularly useful for this purpose.
Once turned on and in the TEXT program, it could be handed to a person who had never before operated a computer. With a very few instructions, the person was soon typing away, making corrections, "cutting and pasting" text, and using the straightforward text-processing capabilities of the Model 100 to prepare a draft report.
This risk-free and purposeful exposure to computers convinced many people who had been avoiding them that there was nothing all that threatening about them and that they could proceed to embrace the technology without further anxiety.]
A staff member transcribed the hand-written comments and uploaded those prepared on the Model 100s into the desktop computer, for uploading to the Meta:OT online conference. (In some cases, the modems in the Model 100s were used to directly upload the text to the host computer.) This process provided the linkage between the on-site attendees and the online participants, and enabled the dialogue between them to be carried on during the four days of the conference.
Following the f-t-f meeting, it was then a simple matter to download all of the OT3 discussion items and their related responses, print them, and have them copied, bound, and mailed out to all of the attendees (most of whom do not have access to terminals or PCs) and to the online participants. That Interim Version of the Electronic Compendium was comprised of over 60 pages of text containing 34 different discussion items and their responses. Further input was solicited after the readers had the opportunity to consider the totality and integration of the session descriptions, responses to them, and the exchanges which occurred between the on-site attendees and the online participants. That further input was provided either via written responses on a form mailed into the staff and again uploaded onto the online conference, or by the online participants providing their input online in the Meta:OT conference.
The process achieved integration of a face-to-face meeting, the concurrent and subsequent discussion made possible by computer conferencing, and the use of written copy and postal mail. The final product is a publication with a great deal of richness, depth, and, of all things, humanness, reflecting the earnest, usually well-reasoned, and sometimes emotional, dialogue between people sharing a common interest but different opinions on a subject area. It is an example of the kind of bridge which electronic networking can provide between the face-to-face and online communities, a further step toward achieving a sense of unity within our human groups.
Imagine how the process could be used to extend and enrich the countless meetings occurring every day throughout the business community, within governmental bodies, and in organizations and networks all over the world!
Who knows? It may even be used at the ENA f-t-f conference in Washington, D.C., the theme of which is
Using the Medium!
-----
Further information about the process used in the preparation of an
electronic compendium can be obtained from the author at Metasystems
Design Group, Inc., 177 Webster Street, #3701, Monterey, CA 93940, (408)
373-7638, on The Meta Network or Unison ENA conferences (Roger Bunting),
The Source (STJ216), or CompuServe (71656,1134).
STUDY CIRCLES AND COMPUTER CONFERENCING
by Norman D. Kurland
[Reproduced with permission from the October issue of THE ELECTRIC PAGES, an electronic magazine serving primarily the State of Texas. Published by National Information Systems, Inc., P.O. Box 2550, Austin, TX 78768. Phone: 512-472-6432] -----
Study Circles are a new-old form of adult learning that adapt well to the newest form of adult learning: on-line courses and computer conferencing.
WHAT IS A STUDY CIRCLE?
A Study Circle is a stimulating, informal, and inexpensive way to learn through shared group effort and experience. The Circle members run their own small group, assisted by a trained facilitator. They learn what and where they want, and are responsible for their own success.
WHAT DO CIRCLES DO?
A Circle generally has five to fifteen volunteers who meet regularly to learn about a chosen topic. A trained facilitator helps the group set and meet its learning goals. The members learn from their own resources, including shared experiences, and from prepared materials and outside expertise.
WHO PARTICIPATES?
Participants have included senior citizens, teenagers, working parents, homemakers, employees at all levels, teachers, government workers, the unemployed, students in independent study programs, and citizens concerned with public issues.
WHAT DO THEY STUDY?
Circles have been conducted on almost every conceivable subject, but the most popular have been ones on parenting, money management, retirement planning, and local, national and international issues.
WHERE DO CIRCLES MEET?
Circles meet wherever participants can find comfortable and convenient space: in homes, libraries, community centers, churches, union halls, businesses, and classrooms in schools and colleges.
WHO STARTS A CIRCLE?
A Circle may be started by any individual or organization. All that is required is an interest in learning something, a willingness to bring together a few others with similar interests, and someone trained as a facilitator.
HOW DO FACILITATORS HELP?
o by being trained in group process
o by helping everyone to contribute
o by clarifying and summarizing discussion
o by resolving differences and moving the group toward consensus
o by suggesting occasional review of process and progress
HOW DO FACILITATORS GET TRAINED?
The Study Circle Consortium provides training for trainers of facilitators. Those trainers can then train facilitators locally. Three days is required to train a trainer and two for facilitators. An initial group of facilitators is trained at the same time as the trainers.
WHAT IS THE STUDY CIRCLE CONSORTIUM?
The consortium is a group of individuals and organizations who want to foster Study Circles as a significant way to learn and solve problems. It is a forum for the exchange of information and skills, and sharing of materials and other resources. It provides encouragement and facilitator training. It publishes an occasional newsletter and is planning a national conference in 1986. It is headquartered in the New York State Education Department, where it got its start several years ago.
HOW DID CIRCLES ORIGINATE?
Study Circles were developed in Scandanavia. In Sweden, one out of three adults takes part in Circles each year. Governmental subsidy helps to encourage participation. In the United States, Circles were originated at the end of the nineteenth century by the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. It was from there that the idea originally was taken to Sweden. Other groups have had similar approaches to learning such as Bible study groups, the League of Women Voters, the Great Books Program, and many other self-directed study and action groups.
Many businesses are using a variant of the Circle approach called the Quality Circle. First widely developed in Japan as a way to improve productivity and product quality, the idea has spread widely in this country as well. Quality Circles put the emphasis on solving specific problems, while Study Circles put the emphasis on learning.
HOW ARE CIRCLES BEING USED FOR PUBLIC POLICY DISCUSSION?
The Domestic Policy Association (DPA) has chosen Study Circles as one format to engage citizens in the discussion of major national issues. Each year the DPA selects three issues for discussion by concerned citizens. It publishes an issues book on each of the topics and encourages organizations throughout the country to bring people together to discuss the issues. Participants fill out ballots at the end of the discussion, which are summarized locally and nationally and the results presented to key decision makers.
The issues this year are:
1. The Soviets: What is the Conflict About?
2. Taxes: Who Should Pay and Why?
3. Welfare: Who Should be Entitled to Public Help?
The DPA has published a brochure: "The Study Circle in The National Issues Forum."
HOW DO CIRCLES RELATE TO ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION?
The discussions in computer conferences have many of the same characteristics as Study Circles. Both consist of a small number of people who are interested in a common topic; both are "learner-centered" since it is the participants who decide what, how and how much to learn; both are informal since there is no "curriculum" or set of learning objectives to be met, nor any predetermined structure; and both occur at times convenient to the participants.
Many computer conferences even have someone who performs the facilitator function--sometimes this role evolves "naturally;" sometimes a member of the group is specifically designated as a facilitator or "moderator."
HOW CAN ELECTRONIC CIRCLES BE USED?
Because of the similarities, computer conferences can be thought of as "electronic study circles." In recognition of this concept, in October the DPA began an experiment to determine if the forums could be conducted via computer conferencing. A discussion on the welfare topic was begun on The Source (see NIF-WELFARE). In the first week discussion was spirited and extensive. The experiment appears already to have demonstrated that this medium lends itself nicely to the kind of discussion the DPA is trying to promote.
Another application of the Electronic Study Circle is in distance-learning programs. In those programs, students receive their instruction from an instructor via mail (correspondence study), or television, radio, telephone, and, now, computer. The key factor is that the students are separated from the instructor and, usually, from each other both in space and time. One of the key problems in distance education is overcoming the loneliness of the long-distance learner. The Electronic Study Circle is one answer to this problem. Online, both students and instructors can learn together without having to be in the same place or even online at the same time. As the numbers of persons using the media of all kinds for instruction grow, it can be expected that the Electronic Circle will be more widely used.
HOW CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION?
Information about Circles and about facilitator training may be obtained by writing to: The Study Circle Consortium, Room 5A47, Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230.
Information about the National Issues Forums may be obtained from: Domestic Policy Association, Study Circle Program, 5335 Far Hills Avenue, Dayton, OH 45429.
-----
Author's note: Norman Kurland, a consultant in education and
telecommunications, is a founding member of ENA and has for several years
been active on several networks including NYIT, The Source, and
Compuserve. He is Chair of the Study Circle Consortium and Director of
the Telecommunications Management Program at the State University of New
York at Albany.
HERE COMES THE COMMON GROUND
by Andy Abramson
A new networking system is about to be unleashed on the world, and like both UNISON and THE WELL, local flavor with global access will be the underlying theme of the new system. Although not publicly announced, details of the system's existence and concept have been revealed through an electronic interview with one of the system's founders, Jessica Lipnack.
The New England Commons ("The Commons") will be a computer conferencing system with a primary focus on the New England area. Present plans are for The Commons to be operational, with packet-switching access, on January 1, 1986.
"The Commons will be different from other systems in the same way that Boston is different from San Francisco. There is a unique flavor to business, education, and culture in Boston, and The Commons will reflect that which is New England," said Jessica Lipnack, one of the system's three co-founders.
The system will operate on a DEC VAX 11/780, with a mix of software,
including NETI's eForum and eMemo (NETI's e-mail system), both to be announced shortly. Prices and services are also to be announced soon.
"The New England Commons is an extension of the work Jeffrey Stamps and I have been doing at The Networking Institute, and the work Robert McAndrews has been doing with online management education," said Lipnack.
Jeff Stamps and Jessica Lipnack first came onto EIES in 1980. They then co-authored "The NETWORKING Book" and had been thinking about an electronic-networking application for quite some time.
Lipnack continued, "In the spring of 1985, Bob McAndrews, formerly Vice President of Education for the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, School of Management and Strategic Studies in La Jolla, CA, decided to move to Boston, which is when we realized the compatibility of our electronic interests. With Bob's expertise and interest in online education, and Jeff's and my love of electronic and people networking, we were able to quickly develop a plan for bringing up a reliable, globally accessible system."
The name for the system came from the desire of Lipnack, Stamps, and McAndrew to create an electronic community. The words "New England Commons" were voiced on a boat of all places, and they realized *that* had to be its name.
Reportedly, the New England Commons will be part of a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) pilot program for the development of regional computer conferencing and networking systems. The project is designed to be a proving ground for the use of this rapidly growing medium and its potential applications in the future.
"We're deep into the hard work that precedes The Commons coming online...and we're looking forward to all manner of interesting activities for our participants, including, of course, being able to read NETWEAVER," added Jessica Lipnack.
-----
Talk about using the medium. This whole story came about through the use of the medium. First, Lisa Kimball suggested a story on the New England Commons system to me via PARTI on Unison. Then I asked Stan Pokras to port questions to the operators of the Commons, which he did via EIES, and then sent the replies back to me by pulling the replies from EIES and porting them back to UNISON.
That is USING THE MEDIUM! -----
Author's note: Andy Abramson is President of Hockey Central, an organization established in 1976 by the Philadelphia Flyers to promote, stimulate and develop interest in amateur hockey. During his ten year association with the Flyers he has held positions in the Marketing, Public Realtions, and Administration departments. He is also the Chairman of the Spectacor PC Users Group.
COMPUTER-RELATED COMMUNICATIONS IN SWEDEN
by Kelley Boan
First, let me clarify a few things about the state of telecommunications in Sweden. I work as a consultant for a subsidiary of Teleinvest AB, which is a holding company under Televerket, the Swedish Telecommunications Administration (STA). This sounds a little confusing, but actually it is very much like the structure of the U.S. telecommunications market, AD (After Divestiture). You've probably seen the diagrams of a typical Regional Holding Company formed by the Bell System breakup (Pacific Telesis Group, NYNEX, etc.) where the telephone companies (PacBell, New York Bell, etc.) on one side and the "unregulated" companies (PacTel, New York Bell Leasing, etc.) are on the other. My company fits in under "unregulated" companies.
This doesn't sound like the typical European PTT (Post, Telephone and Telegraph) and it shouldn't. The STA is not a PTT. It has no connection with the post office at all. The STA is a public service corporation more in line with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting than anything else. As such, it operates as a commercial entity required to maintain a satisfactory level of profit.
The STA does have some legal monopolies, but they are restricted to PABX (private automatic branch exchanges), modems above 1200 bps and coin phones. There is no network monopoly, although a potential competitor would need to find rights of way to subscribers. Telephone terminals will go the way of the U.S. market on November 1, 1985, when "type-accepted" sets will become legal in Sweden.
Data Communication
There are two public data nets in Sweden, the X.21 Datex system and the X.25 Datapac system. Since the type of networking ENA is interested in uses X.25, I will limit the discussion to that. The Datapac net works the same way as other international nets described in earlier issues of "Netweaver". One must have an account on Datapac to use it; there is no such thing as a "collect call." To access Datapac one need only dial 0024 (1200 bps) or 0023(300 bps) from any exchange in Sweden. Therefore, all user to node calls are billed as local calls. After entering account name and password, the user enters the network address (either in Sweden or international) and he is on. The international gateway is in Stockholm, and from there one can hit Tymnet, Telenet or Uninet, plus other European packet networks.
ISDN
The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is coming to Sweden by 1987, when all major trunk lines and switches will be fully digital (64 kbps channels). The ISDN is too complicated for a long discussion here, but the concept is to have data, voice, and (some type of) video all available over the same wire to the subscriber. Currently a good deal of work is going into the provision of services over the ISDN to keep the definition from changing to "Innovation Subscribers Don't Need."
Telebox
Telebox, a nationwide electronic mail system based on GTE Telenet's Telemail software, will be introduced next year. This X.400-compatible e-mail system will offer e-mail and Telex service nationwide through the STA network. It will also offer gateway service to other X.400 mail services outside Sweden, such as Telemail in the U.S.
Videotex
The STA offers a videotex network as well, which seems to have met better acceptance by the public than similar offerings in the U.S. It is a color-page system and offers news, sports information, weather, and so on.
COM
No discussion of the Swedish telecommunication scene would be complete without a mention of COM, the computer conferencing system. COM is offered by Stockholm University's Computer Center, QZ, and is not part of the STA. It is accessed by either the Datapac system or straight dial up lines at either 300 or 1200 bps.
COM was developed from experience with early U.S. systems such as FORUM and is now widely used in Europe. It runs on DEC 10/20 machines as well as other systems. It shares some features with Parti and FORUM but is different from both as well. One major difference is its ability to support parallel conferences (conferences operating on two different hosts). Another is its "comment links," which allow comments in one conference to link to other relevant conferences.
There are two COM databases operating at QZ, one in Swedish, one in English. Currently there are about 700 conferences in Swedish, another 300 or so in English. Most international users are on the English system, for obvious reasons. The English COM database also has gateways to the JANET in England and MAILNET in the U.S., allowing even wider access to its conferences.
That is a quick tour of the Swedish telecommunications scene. I'll be glad to answer any questions I may have raised but not answered in this fast look at the services.
-----
Author's note: Kelley Boan is a transplanted American currently
working in Sweden. He notes that the above information reflects two
months' experience in the country, and apologizes for any accidental
inaccuracies which may have crept in.
HAVE LAP, WILL TRAVEL
Telephone Tips
by Stefanie Kott
You're on a trip, carrying your trusty portable computer. You've mastered telecommunications at home or in the office and remembered to pack all the paraphernalia (adapters, batteries, cables). You've had a hard day. When you reach your hotel room, the bed looks inviting, but you resist the urge to fall into it long enough to send your boss the work you promised or to check in on your favorite computer conference(s).
There's No Phone Jack!
Ideally, the modem cable plugs into a telephone jack and into your computer. But when you trace the phone wire to the wall of your hotel room, you find there is no jack; the wire is anchored to the wall. What to do?
Since more and more hotels are hard-wiring their phones against theft, and since all telephone booths are hard-wired, you may be out of luck unless you've come prepared: A modem MUST connect somehow to a phone. But if you check the ads in any portable- computer magazine, you will see that there are a number of products that help you handle a hard-wired phone.
One lightweight solution is acoustic cups. After dialing a phone number manually, as you would when calling home, you then place each end of the telephone receiver into a rubber cup. Transmission proceeds as if through a telephone wire.
Since acoustic cups do not work on all portables (for example, the Radio Shack acoustic cups do not work on the NEC 8200 portables, even though the NECs are similar to Model 100s), another possible device is an acoustic modem. Acoustic modems are external to the computer and allow transmission through the phone receiver. Whereas they can be large, heavy and clunky, their proportions are diminishing as new products reach the market.
If the mouthpiece on the phone you're using screws off, you can replace the phone's mouthpiece with a rubber device that looks like, and temporarily replaces, the telephone mouthpiece. This becomes a substitute for a wall jack; snap the clip from your modem wire into a wall-jack-type receptacle in the now-rubber phone mouthpiece.
The cheapest and, some say, most versatile way to make a connection is with a modular cable that has alligator clips at one end. Clip the alligator clips to the contacts inside the mouthpiece or to the wall plate if the phone mouthpiece can't be unscrewed. (Caution: If you connect to the wall plate, make sure one clip connects to the red wire and the other to the green wire.)
Oddities in Placing Outside Calls
Your hotel requires that you dial 9 to get an outside line. Since your modem allows automatic dialing, you add a 9 in front of the phone number. But the call repeatedly (or intermittently) doesn't go through. What to do? Dial 9 a few times to see how quickly (and consistently) you get an outside line. If it takes a few seconds, make sure there's a pause between the 9 and the rest of the number in the autodial script to allow for the lag.
When the software you're using has automatic logon (which automatically sends the commands needed to get to the computer you're dialing, including your Username and Password), you've probably added pauses to allow enough time between the last number dialed and the time your first command is sent. (Different programs have different symbols that represent a pause, such as a "p" or a comma.) A number might wind up looking something like this:
9pp12125551212ppppp or 9,12125551212,,,,
NOTHING Works!
You've done EVERYTHING right. You've got all the right equipment and have checked all the variables. What next?
One unfortunate result of the new free enterprise in the telephone arena (encouraging hotels and businesses to outfit their facilities with phones other than Ma Bell's) is that some of those alternative systems have standards and protocols that differ from Ma Bell's. But computers that speak to each other must be compatible, and data transmissions are standardized on Bell protocols. It is therefore possible that some hotel phones CANNOT be used for transmissions. Period.
What to do? If the hotel phones cannot be used for transmissions, go to the phone booth in the lobby (with whatever acoustic device you have) and place your call from there! And here's a tip for calling from phone booths: If you plan to be on for more than a few minutes, use a credit card so you're not interrupted by the Recorded Operator.
Getting Garbling or Disconnected?
You've made a connection with an acoustic modem or cups, but your transmissions are garbled. What to do? 1) Try (if you're in a hotel room) putting the receiver and coupler under a pillow, or 2) try unscrewing the earpiece to see if the hollow part of the handle of the phone is stuffed with cotton. If it is not, or if there is not much, stuff cotton or tissues in the earpiece to reduce echoing and feedback between it and the microphone.
You're in your hotel room and you've made a connection; suddenly you're disconnected. What to do? Disconnections sometimes occur when someone tries to call you, or if there's a call- waiting beep, or if a message light is placed on your phone. There is no remedy for disconnections, other than to reconnect.
One thing to remember when the complexity of telecommunications seems a little overwhelming: Getting the right balance of variables for successful telecommunications under varying travel conditions can be challenging, but ultimately the new workstyles it offers more than balance its pitfalls. Just remember that we're on the cusp of a new day, and that things are bound to get better/easier/faster. Very Soon Now.
-----
Author's note: Thanks to Sherwin Levinson, who gave me some
interesting telephone tips. He points out that airline clubs, like the
Delta Crown Rooms, have local phones with modular jacks. It is possible
that airlines' clubs have equipment to suit high-tech travelers. Sherwin
also makes and sells modular clips with complete instructions. He can be
contacted as Sherwin on all public Participate systems, STF003 or BBV976
on The Source, 71745,1257 on Compuserve, SHERWIN on BIX.
A PERSONAL VISION
by David Hughes
All of my work has been directed toward one general goal: the establishment of operating principles and the development of practical community models for the restoration in America--at the dawning of the Information Age--of what largely has been lost (or was never properly gained) through the excesses and imperatives of the late, great Industrial Age. I envision that, through the use of computers and communications, we will be able to attain the benefits of economies of scale without requiring huge companies, huge governments, huge cities--and huge everything else.
CHARIOT, a powerful telecommunications tool that Louis Jaffe and I are about to make available to the public, borrows from the best of all systems--and goes well beyond most of them. CHARIOT will break new ground toward the realization of the following ends:
* Using microcomputers with associated, parallel
communications systems to empower the Individual.
* Promoting equality of economic opportunity.
* Encouraging cultural and social diversity.
* Totally redefining the meaning and practice of
education as a lifelong, self-actuated, low-cost
access to knowledge and to the development of skills.
* Reducing the dependence on--and therefore the power
of-- centralized media (replacing "broadcast" with
"dialogue").
* Diffusing--rather than concentrating--economic,
political, and governmental power and scale.
* Balancing the power of money with the power of
information.
* Reducing the importance of physical "place" to
individual success in America.
* Ensuring that "ordinary" people--not just economic,
institutional, or educational elites--will be able to
use the principal tools of our age (computers) for the
betterment of their lives and communities.
* Returning craftsmanship and interest in (maybe even
"love of") our chosen work to the center of the work
ethic.
* Truly connecting and passing on the values of the
old (knowledge, experience, and maybe a little wisdom)
to the persons and characteristics of the young
(energy, vigor, and creativity), to complement the
roles of the middle-aged (power, influence, position,
and self-preoccupation) in our society.
If CHARIOT is a success, I will consider undertaking the creation (or, more precisely, the phoenix-like rise from the glorious, Victorian-building ashes of an old gold-mining town) of a Colorado mountain community along the lines inferred from the above. The community, which will be called "The Colorado Center for Information Studies," will be:
- inhabited by networked minds,
- powered by information economics,
- governed by an intelligent consensus,
- surrounded by an appealing natural setting, and
- built by the new pioneers.
Do you want to join?
-----
Editor's note: David Hughes (a.k.a. "Sourcevoid Dave") refers to himself
as "an electronic communications populist and an independent microcomputer
activist." He has plumbed the depths of many general telecommunications
services (including Compuserve, Delphi, EIES, and The Source) for the last
six years, and was the originator of User Publishing on The Source. David
still runs his popular Old Colorado City Electronic Cottage BBS System;
with Louis Jaffe, he now also runs the new CHARIOT system.
This article was adapted from David's self-introduction in the
"Symposium" conference in PARTI on The Source.
