Approved-By:  RAED@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.govdoc-l
Date:         Tue, 1 Sep 1992 09:14:30 CDT
From:         Joe Ryan <JORYAN@SUVM.acs.syr.edu>

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Thought this might be of interested to the list.  The original
appeared on the com-priv list.


Date: 31 Aug 1992 16:20:17 -0700 (MST)
From: "Dr. Ross Alan Stapleton" <STAPLETON@mis.arizona.edu>
Subject: GPO opens a very small "windo"
To: com-priv@psi.com

[From Federal Computer Week, Aug. 31, 1992, pp. 1,45.]

GPO Bulletin Board Opens Gateway to Agency Info
   by Edith Herman

The Government Printing Office will begin operating a new electronic bulletin
board tomorrow designed to provide the public with centralized computer
access to the voluminous documents, notices  and publications disseminated by
federal agencies.

    The bulletin board, billed as "low cost" and more economical than many
agency bulletin boards operated by the private sector, appears to be the
first, small step in GPO's efforts to ensure public access to electronic data
as more agencies begin putting information on-line.

Information Central

    "A central point of access reduces the burden on the public," said
John A. Richards, a Federal Register staff director at the Environmental
Protection Agency and an early cheerleader for the service.   "If every
agency develops its own bulletin board with its own access codes and
software, it will be confusing to the public."

    Bills pending in the House and Senate would go even further by
creating a full-fledged electronic gateway at GPO that would give the public
access to all electronic data in the government, including bulletin boards
maintained by individual agencies.

    Charges for use of the board will be based on the size of the file
downloaded.   The minimum charge is $2 for files of up to 50K, and prices
increase up to $21 for a full 1M file.   According to GPO, the average file
size is 201K to 250K, which would cost $6.

    The rates will be reviewed in six months to determine if they should
be adjusted, said Judy Russell, director of GPO's Office of Electronic
Dissemination Services.

    Russell said the bulletin board is designed to be easy to use.
Although it will not permit on-line searches, it will offer easy-to-read
menus and limited keyword searching to help find files.

    Users will not be able to download files without establishing
accounts with GPO, but they can sign up on-line using credit cards.

    The first agencies to use the new on-line bulletin board are the
State and Energy departments and the EPA.   However, several other agencies,
such as the National Cancer Institute, have also expressed an interest in
using the service.

    "I think if you look at this bulletin board in a month, you'll see a
lot more files," she said.   "A lot of agencies are contacting us and saying,
'Oh, we have things to put on there too.'"

    State will put its weekly foreign policy magazine, Dispatch, on the
bulletin board.   It will also offer on-line access to daily press briefings
and to its entire package of Background Notes, which summarize information
about various countries throughout the world.

    The bulletin board will also carry a variety of statistical material
from DOE, including the annual energy review that shows US production,
consumption and price data for energy sources.   DOE also plans to offer a
PC-based simulation model that projects future world oil prices and world
crude oil supplies annually by region through 2010.

    The EPA will run several files of interest to the general public,
such as its Toxic Release Inventory, which lists sites where hazardous
materials are emitted.   The EPA also plans to use the GPO bulletin board to
run electronic versions of all documents it publishes in the Federal Register
and will offer those documents in ASCII and PostScript printer language, said
Richards, who directs the Federal Register staff at the agency's Office of
Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.

    Richards said he became "concerned because we have products of value
to the public, and there was no central point for electronic dissemination of
the federal information."

    PostScript will make it easy to transfer graphics, he said.   For
example, a new regulation requiring farmers to protect workers when using
pesticides includes a graphic of a sign that farmers will have to post after
using pesticides on their fields.

    "We deliver our documents to the Federal Register coded and ready to
run on disks," Richards said.   "The plan is that, when the Federal Register
document is electronically encoded, we can immediately make it available to
the bulletin board so it appears at 9am on the day of Federal Register
publication."

    Russell said the content of the bulletin board is up to agencies. GPO
will act in a neutral role as the system operator.   Agencies will be able to
upload their own files, or they can bring them to GPO by "sneaker network" on
disks, Russell said.

    Customers and agencies can communicate with GPO as system operator
via electronic mail, and they will get free access to bulletins announcing
new services or changes.

    The bulletin board will run on a 486 PC with a limited 190M hard disk
that GPO plans to increase to 1G.   Initially there will be 16 telephone
lines connected to 9600 bps modems, but GPO plans to add 32 more lines by
Oct. 1.

    All material that runs on the bulletin board will automatically be
placed on diskettes for sale to those who want to order a file on diskette
[rather] than to download it, Russell said.   "A bulletin board is not always
the best way to obtain files.   It offers one option."

    Public Printer Robert Houk will announce the new service in a press
announcement to be released Sept. 1.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
{Additional comments and queries by Ross Stapleton deleted}
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU