From: ATGVG@ASUACAD.BITNET (Gene Glass)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edpolyan
Subject: Advertising on the Networks
Date: 5 Oct 92 15:37:06 GMT
              <EDPOLYAN@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

From: GLASS GENE V <glass@spot.Colorado.EDU>
To: atgvg@asuacad.bitnet

     This past week EDPOLYAN saw the posting of an announcement of
a course on the INTERNET (how to FTP, find user ids, and the like)
offered by an individual in Brazil affiliated with a university
there. He would sign you up for $5 cash sent to him personally. The
following day, the head of the computer center at the university
where this individual had an account sent a notice to us all that
the course was not sanctioned by the university and the person's
computer privileges had been suspended. Two days later an
announcement was posted on EDPOLYAN of a course to be conducted via
email from Deakin University in Australia: the instructors are
known internationally (Stephen Kemmis, Colin Henry and Robin
McTaggart), the course is clearly sanctioned by the university,
which gives hours credit for successful completion, and the fee
($2,000 US, not $200 as Alan Davis recalled in his subsequent
comment) marks the course as a serious undertaking.
     Alan Davis first remarked on the irony of one person being
banished for advertising on the INTERNET and others not for similar
activities. He asked whether INTERNET or BITNET policies governed
such cases. Cyril Kesten suggested that it might be appropriate if
the moderator (me, in this case) screened all postings to catch
problematic ones. David Passmore said "caveat emptor," we should
all be on our own, screening is for children's movie-going.
     There really isn't any INTERNET policy to speak of, though
computer center officials will intervene if someone complains and
it is the case that a user is engaging in obscene or fraudulent
behavior. The standards on obscenity are very lax, as those who
have roamed the INTERNET newsgroups can attest. This is an
enormously fragile medium that an evil person could harm quite
easily if they chose to make themselves obnoxious. It is a
heartening credit to our species that our business is transacted in
such a high minded fashion.
     The difference between the $5 Brazil "course" and the Deakin
offering is manifest and nothing on my part or the "INTERNET's"
part is needed to protect you, gentle reader. The administrator in
Brazil was acting to protect the university's reputation, not us.
     What standard or rule should govern postings on this and other
Lists, aside from common decency? Should money making ventures be
suppressed? Well, money making for whom? Everyone agrees, I am
certain, that job announcements are welcome. And yet, there is an
understanding that we not use this medium to announce that we are
unhappy at our present place of employment and wish to change jobs.
Why? Because if such postings were acceptable, the forum would
quickly become flooded with pleas for work. If a university can
announce a position opening here, then why not a special course,
both of which are a part of it doing its business? Both seem
acceptable, though a university routinely dumping its normal
catalogue of courses onto the INTERNET would be junk mailing of an
unwelcome sort.
     I once was a regular reader of an INTERNET newsgroup in the
early days that prided itself on its open mindedness; it had only
two restrictions: you couldn't use the forum to advertise your
availability for a job any job, and you couldn't talk about
abortion. The principle at work there seemed to be that either of
these two had the potential for swamping the forum and driving out
all other discussion.
     Which brings me belatedly to a point of some relevance to our
discussions here. How is it that we here at EDPOLYAN have avoided
the topic of abortion so long and so assiduously? Out of a fear for
what might be unleashed if the topic is broached? Out of a sense of
the futility of discussing it? How could one argue that the topic
is not of utmost concern to educators, and that policy regarding
it, like policy regarding AIDS, for example, is not of tremendous
importance to our schools? And if it can not be so successfully
argued, how long can we go on avoiding the topic?

_______________________________________________________________________

GENE V GLASS                                    ATGVG AT ASUACAD.BITNET
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION                            ATGVG AT ASUACVAX.BITNET
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY                        INTERNET ADDRESS:
Tempe, AZ 85287-2411                            ATGVG@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU
602-965-2692  (303-499-2816 from June '92 until Dec. '92)
  (While on sabbatical until Dec. '92, I can be reached at
    GLASS@SPOT.COLORADO.EDU )
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU