From: petrilli@nextover.pe.utexas.edu (Chris Petrilli)
Newsgroups: austin.public-net
Subject: Re: Connect*Austin Purpose & Scope
Date: 25 Jan 93 15:33:41 GMT
Reply-To: petrilli@nextover.pe.utexas.edu
Distribution: austin

In article <C14K4F.1I3n@austin.ibm.com> andy@austin.ibm.com (Andy Lowe)  
writes:
> 
> Hi.  Let me commend you all on an ambitious and to my mind, worthwhile
> project.  Please consider me available if I can provide you any help
> in making it happen. 

Will do, we're in the process of putting together a list of people who are  
interested in donating time to the project so that we can better split the  
"load".
 
> Now I have read the intro paper by Chris Petrilli & Bob Izenberg and I
> am very interested.  But I'm not sure I understand what the (initial)
> purpose and scope of this project are, especially in the context of
> some recent postings.

Well, there's a lot of confusion by most people, so I can't say as I'm going  
to answer all the questions, or even provide a "definitive" answer, but since  
I was the chief author of C*A, I'll give it a shot.

> If the idea is to get people who have no computer at all, not even a
> pc or perhaps a computer, but no modem -- to get people like this
> involved in the UseNet -- I wonder if that is a really good idea.
> What I mean by that is not that it would be undesirable (although it
> might have unforseen consequences), but that it would be doomed to die
> or at least evolve into a different project when the immense ignorance
> and apathy finally overcomes the idealism of the volunteers or
> workers. 

Well, I think you'll find within the group on this, but I do admit that there  
are a lot of variables and things to be considered.  I don't think this will  
be the first thing that the project does simply because that would be  
"putting the cart before the horse," so to speak.a

> Alternatively, if the idea is to get people who are now or have in the
> past been connected to UseNet through some organization or who are at
> least somewhat "computer literate" -- used to bulletin boards &
> networking within an organization (a college campus, say) -- to get
> people like this more or better access than they have or have had in
> the past, I think that is worthwhile & doable.  In fact it has been
> done on a for-profit basis as has been discussed here and elsewhere. 

Well, I think it's more to connect people, not necessarily to UseNet (that  
was mearly a "point" in the proposal).  The goal is to connect people who are  
interested, and also to educate the public about computer communications and  
the sort.  I think without this step then much of the project becomes a  
"technical exercise" that doesn't accomplish much, and in fact would most  
likely not survive.

> If it is to provide these services at a nominal charge (say based on
> phone line usage) at some level to begginer, non-technical users and
> experts such as some previous posters, then it appears to defeat some
> of these for-profit organizations such as psi, holobyte, etc.  Is that
> in fact one goal? 

Usage would be based on resource consumption (disk space, Internet, line  
usage), though not in a "per minute" way.  The goal is not to defeat anyone,  
but simply to provide a service that is sorely lacking in this community. 

Chris
--
| Chris Petrilli
| petrilli@nextover.pe.utexas.edu, petrilli@gnu.ai.mit.edu
| All opinions are my own, if they even belong to anyone.