From: hauben@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Michael Hauben)
Subject: [Part 4 of 4] Amateur Computerist Usenet Supplement
Followup-To: alt.amateur-comp
Summary: The Wonderful World of Usenet News
Keywords: Usenet News Amateur Computerist Democracy Technology
Reply-To: hauben@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Michael Hauben)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 01:44:11 GMT

 ==========================Part 4 of 4========================
 
                     Two Books to Help Users:
                      "Using UUCP and Usenet" 
                               and
           "The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog"

                 The Town Meeting of the World:
                  Usenet News, UUCP & Internet
 
   A worldwide computer users network has developed into a series
of democratic electronic town meetings on different topics that
are available to users around the world. Known as Usenet News,
this netnews network has evolved into a set of forums on dif-
ferent subjects where participants can discuss and debate their
differing viewpoints in an effort to find solutions to some of
the very difficult problems in today's world.
 
   Several books give some background of the origin of this
worldwide netnews network and provide users with advice about how
to obtain and use software that makes it possible to participate.
Usenet News is a logical network which is transported via
physical networks like the Internet and UUCP. Beginning in this
special issue of the Amateur Computerist we will attempt to
introduce some of the books that provide users with the
information and help needed to take part in these technological
advances.
 
   The book Using UUCP and Usenet News by Grace Tolino and Dale
Dougherty (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1986, corrected 1991), is
an introduction to the wonderful world of Usenet News. "Usenet,"
they tell the reader, stands for "user's network". Originally it
was "a collection of UNIX systems that runs the netnews
software." (pg.12) Usenet, which now runs on many other  operat-
ing systems, "is a worldwide network of computers that run the
netnews software," they explain.(pg.99)
 
   The authors describe the origin of Usenet News. "Usenet News,"
they write, grew out of UNIX users network (Usenet). (pg.xii)
 
   One of the networking facilities for the UNIX operating system
is known as UUCP (which stands for Unix-to-Unix CoPy). "UUCP,"
the authors explain, "is a networking facility for the UNIX
operating system. It's software consists of files and programs
for configuring and administering this facility and a number of
programs that give users access to it."(pg.2)
 
   Many of the news reading programs, though copyrighted, are
freely available for the personal use of computer users who have
access to UNIX. And there are also programs that mimic the
capability of these programs that are available for other types
of computers such as IBM and Macintosh.
 
   By posting a question or opinion or response to another post
on Usenet News, the computer user in Dearborn, Michigan, for
example, becomes connected with computer users in Berlin,
Germany, or Palo Alto, California, or Oslo, Norway, etc. The set
of public posts are passed on around the U.S. and around the
world, via a worldwide network that has developed in the past
decade.
 
   The authors of Using UUCP and Usenet News explain how Usenet
News, functions:
 
   "The net (as it is commonly called) is a public forum for the
   exchange of ideas in the form of news articles that are 
   broadcast to member sites. Net users can post articles, 
   forward mail, send followup articles to previous articles, or 
   simply read the news using netnews programs." (pg.12)
 
   At the time Using UUCP and Usenet News was written (there have
been several updates), the authors, Grace Todino and Dale
Dougherty, reported that a posting was transmitted all over North
America within two hours of being posted.
 
   "The net is a noncommercial network," they note. Probably this
accounts for the amazing growth and development of Usenet News
within the short period of a decade. Most of the participants are
often unpaid and they make every effort to help new users and to
encourage what they feel are constructive developments. "When
used properly," the writers of Using UUCP and Usenet News
explain, "the net is a unique way to stay informed and up-to-date
on categories from UNIX to politics." (pg.13)
 
   There is the benefit of first hand information on a strike in
Germany or how to teach a course in physics. "When you use
Usenet," they write, "you don't just receive it; you interact
with it." Thus Usenet has led to the existence of a world wide
network of computers and a world wide network of computer users.
 
   The book also describes the UUCP network which formed the
physical foundation on which Usenet News was developed. "The UUCP
network currently consists of thousands of UNIX installations
worldwide, and they can be reached if you know the network
pathnames to them. Your link to the UNIX network becomes your
link to the world and the world's link to you." (pg.11)
 
   The book explains how this network functioned, basing itself
on backbone sites. "You can think of a backbone site as the
center of a web with local networks growing into and out of it.
News that is sent to a backbone site is passed on to other
backbone sites as quickly as possible, so that it gets
transmitted over a wide area in a short time." (pg.12)
 
   "The articles on the net," write the authors, "are classified
into `newsgroups,' according to subject matter. You can think of
a newsgroup," they explain, "as a bulletin board or forum devoted
to one topic." There are groups on using various programs or
computers, groups devoted to different programming languages,
groups discussing politics, or economics or the developments in
Eastern Europe, etc.
 
   At one time, newsgroups were divided into two different
categories, "net, consisting of groups to which anyone could
post," and "mod, consisting of groups in which postings had
first to be approved by a moderator." (See footnote pg.101) By
November, 1986, newsgroups were organized into seven major cate-
gories. These major categories were:
  comp- Groups relating to some aspect of computer science
        (e.g. comp.lang.misc).
  sci-  Groups relating to science or technology
        (e.g. sci.physics or sci.math)
  news- Groups relating to netnews or of interest to all Usenet
        News users (e.g. news.misc)
  rec-  Groups discussing recreational activities.
        (e.g. rec.backcountry)
  soc-  Groups discussing social issues (e.g.soc.culture.usa,
        soc.culture.german)
  talk- Groups discussing controversial issues
        (e.g. talk.politics.theory, talk.politics.misc)
  misc- Groups that are outside the other categories
        (e.g. misc.activism.progressive, misc.jobs)
 
   Other areas are also represented on the net, especially a
large classification of groups called alt. which are groups that
can be set up temporarily or more quickly than the standard
newsgroups in other categories. For example, an alt.rodney.king
group was set up during the rebellion in Los Angeles in May,
1992. Other alternative groups include:
  gnu-    Groups devoted to the Free Software Foundation which
          has pioneered a battle for open programming code to 
          encourage the exchange of ideas among programmers.
  bionet- Groups involved with the exchange of biological
          information.
 
   Appendix D of the book provides a list of the newsgroups that
were available in 1990, many of which are still functioning. This
list gives a sense of the great variety and diverse interests
represented on Usenet News. About 600 different groups are
described in this list. (There are now estimated to be about
2,500 newsgroups.)
 
   Also, the book tells the user how to acquire and use the
software necessary to participate in Usenet News. There are
directions for using some of the programs that are commonly used
to read Usenet News, such as rn, readnews, or vnews. Procedures
used for posting on Usenet News are described, using postnews
and Pnews. The book also describes how to transfer files between
networked UNIX systems. And it describes how to use the
electronic mail capabilities of Unix to send mail via the
networks across the world.
 
   The authors of Using UUCP and Usenet News recognize that it is
"more than anything...the people who give much of the flavor and
color to the net." (pg.12) It is the computer users on the Net
who have, working together, and building on each other's
contributions and differences, shown that the primary
achievement of early New England, the New England Town Meeting,
is now possible and what's more, it's happening, on a much
broader and diverse basis. The Net now makes possible a Town
Meeting of the World via computers.
 
   The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog by Ed Krol,
(O'Reilly & Associates, California, 1992) updates the earlier
O'Reilly publication about Usenet News and also describes the
Internet, one of the networks that Usenet News is carried on.
Krol gives some history of the Internet in Chapter II. He
explains that the origin of the Internet lies in the ARPAnet set
up by the U.S. Defense Department 20 years ago as an "exper-
imental network designed to support ...research." (pg.11) The
book guides the reader through how to use the Network News
(called nn) newsreader for Usenet, from setting up an nn
directory to posting a Usenet article, to sending replies via e-
mail.
 
   Using directions in this book about how to do a subject or
author search of Usenet News with netnews, I located an article
by one of the founders of Usenet News. After sending him e-mail,
he was particularly helpful in both answering questions and in
suggesting how to trace out further information.
 
   Also, the book has sections on electronic mail and Net
utilities available on the Internet like ftp, archie, gopher and
wais. It guides the reader through how to use Unix programs like
talk and chat. It also contains a section called "The Whole
Internet Catalog" which describes some of the resources available
on the Internet and how to access them. The Whole Internet User's
Guide & Catalog is a welcome addition to the scarce literature
for users about the treasures being made available by the
telecommunications revolution.
 
   The disappointment of Krol's book is that it encourages
commercialization and privatization of the Internet. For example,
Krol writes "...commercial use of the Internet will become
especially good for small business.... Most people in the net-
working community think that privatization is a good idea."
(pg.17) But such changes are contrary to the 20 year development
and history of the networks. The terms `commercialization' and
`privatization' as applied to the Internet are relatively recent
and were coined two years ago at a workshop in 1990 at Harvard
University, according to Eric M. Aupperle. (See "Internet and
NSFNET Evolution," Internet Society News, Summer, 1992, vol 1, no
3, pg.3) Previous to that proposed change in direction, the
research and education mandate of the National Science
Foundation's Acceptable Use Policy restricted commercial and
private interests using the net to research and education
purposes. At the same time, academic and educational institutions
were encouraged to utilize the network. The goal was set of
broadening public use and accessibility of the Internet by
making it available to all school children in the U.S. but this
has not yet been achieved. Nor has any serious legislation or
plan been put forward to implement this goal. The current
promotion of private and commercial purposes or ownership of the
Internet or parts of it is in conflict with this goal of
increased public accessibility. It also threatens to impede the
continued development of this technological breakthrough.
 
   The technological and other educational functions of the
Internet, which have served to support computer users and
developers by providing a community of people to help solve
problems, are threatened by any detour from the research and
education orientation which has nourished network development. It
is not that "most of the people in the networking community think
that privatization is a good idea," as Krol writes. (pg.17)
Rather there is much concern and opposition, particularly among
academic and noncommercial network users, to efforts by certain
commercial users to try to appropriate the benefits of much
publicly funded research and development for the narrow private
profit making interests of a few commercial users. The issue of
how best to support the continued development and evolution of
networking technology and connectivity is a serious question that
needs to be broadly discussed and debated. The Internet and its
prototypes like the ARPANET have been developed by U.S.
government agencies via a large expenditure of public funds and
resources. Also, these advances have benefitted from a great
deal of volunteer labor of computer users of these networks.
 
   The contributions of time, information, discussion, and
involvement of computer users around the world, as well as the
programs developed and made available by computer programmers to
make the net a reality, demonstrate the important capability of
the UNIX world that most home computer users have not yet become
acquainted with. Currently, there is pressure on the U.S.
Congress to privatize the networks that Usenet News is built on.
(See for example "Congressional Hearings on Internet Held March
12," The Boardwatch, May, 1992, pg.53-4)
 
  The history of the evolution of the ARPANET and then the
Internet shows that these technological breakthroughs were only
possible because commercial traffic and participation were
actively restricted and private profit making interests were not
permitted to impede technological development. The future
direction of the Internet is a serious concern which needs to be
examined and discussed in the light of its historical evolution.
Krol's comments on this issue lack this historical perspective
and fail to provide the needed all sided discussion of the
controversy over the future direction of the Internet. There is a
need for the public to know how the network developed and for the
future course to build on the lessons of this history so that
this technological advance can continue to evolve and so that it
will be used to benefit the public and the computer users who
made such an important breakthrough possible.
 
   Krol's support and encouragement of commercialization and
privatization is a detracting aspect, but in general, Krol's
book is helpful because together with Using UUCP and Usenet, it
is helping to spread the use of Usenet News, UUCP and the
Internet.
 
   Just as the development and spread of industry and commerce
played a pivotal role in the development of more democratic
political institutions in the 1700s, communication and the broad
ranging public discussions which are daily occurring on Usenet
News are the basis to introduce order and good government into
our modern world in the 1990s. And just as Adam Smith in the The
Wealth of Nations (Modern Library edition, pg.385) realized that
very few people understood the new political institutions
developing in his day, similarly, today, very few people
recognize the important political legacy of modern
telecommunications technology, especially of computer networks,
i.e. of Usenet News and of the Internet.
 
                      Liberation Technology
             Equal Access Via Computer Communication
                              by Norman Coombs
               (e-mail: NRCGSH@RITVAX.ISC.RIT.EDU)
 
   Western Civilization has had a centuries' long romance with
technology and has often worshipped it as the "savior of
mankind". Alternately, anti-utopians, ever since Shelly conjured
up Frankenstein, have depicted it as the destroyer of humankind
and human values. Technology is power and, as such, can serve
many purposes. Whereas an earlier vision of the computer
predicted an Orwellian "big brother" utilizing a centralized
computer system to control society, the advent of the personal
computer has turned this power pyramid on its head. Increasing
thousands of people have a computer on their desk with as much
capability at their fingertips as once was housed in an expensive
and complicated mainframe. Obviously, the decentralization of
power is no guarantee that the people will make good or wise use
of it.
 
   Computer telecommunications contain the potential for removing
barriers to social access for many disadvantaged persons.
Traditional means of helping such people have usually been
paternalistic in nature. Today, more and more of the
disadvantaged are asking for empowerment so they can help
themselves. They want the freedom to compete with the rest of
society on a more nearly even playing field.
 
   I am a blind professor, at the Rochester Institute of
Technology and I use a computer with a speech synthesizer. I
regularly teach a class of students online with a computer
conference. Most of these students have no physical handicap.
Some of them, however, are hearing impaired, and some are totally
deaf. I have team taught another course at the New School for
Social Research, some 350 miles away, with a teacher who is
confined to a wheelchair and who is both blind and partially
paralyzed. On the computer screen, our handicaps of blindness and
mobility make no difference.
 
   One of the courses I teach online is in African American
history. In that class, some of the students are white, some are
black, others are Asian and still others are Native American.
Obviously, some of the class members are male and others female.
All of these differences, like those of handicaps described
above, become unimportant on the computer screen. It isn't that
these distinguishing characteristics disappear because
participants share their identities, their views and feelings
freely. However, these differences no longer block communication
and community. In fact, conference members often feel free to
make such differences one of the topics for discussion. A student
in my Black History course said that what he liked about
conducting class discussion on the computer was that it didn't
matter whether a person was male, female, black, white, red,
yellow, blind or deaf. He appreciated that his comments were
accepted for their own worth and not judged by some prior
stereotype.
 
   The standard myth about the computer is that it is cold,
depersonalizing and intimidating, the mystical province of a few
wizards. When I began utilizing the computer to communicate with
students, I had no idea of its potential to change my life and my
teaching. First, it began by liberating me, a blind teacher, from
my dependence on other people. As I now have all my assignments
submitted through electronic mail including frequent take-home
exams, I have very little need for human readers. This experience
prepared me to become a member of a pilot study using computer
conferencing to replace classroom discussion for students in some
continuing education courses. Those with a personal computer and
modem could work from home or the office. This freed them from
the time and bother of commuting and also let them set their own
schedule. The computer conference was available online 24 hours
a day.
 
   We are using the conference system, VAX Notes produced by the
Digital Equipment Corporation. It does facilitate a genuine group
discussion without the class having to be in the same place nor
having to be connected at the same time. I found it easy to send
frequent short personal notes to individual students, and, in the
evaluation questionnaire, the students rated my helpfulness and
availability at 4.8 out of 5 points. I, too, felt I had more
contact with individual students than is usual in a face-to-face
classroom. This system had immediate appeal for three groups of
our students. Off-campus continuing education students were happy
not to have to commute. Those who had been taking mainly
television or correspondence courses valued the easy exchange of
information both between themselves and their teacher and between
themselves and other students. The third group turned out to be
regular day students with scheduling problems. This kind of flex
scheduling is especially valuable for those students whose sched-
ules are filled by laboratory courses.
 
   Although computer conferencing had obvious benefits for me, a
blind professor, I had failed to grasp its significance for
disabled students in general. Only when a deaf student joined the
class did I come to realize its potential. This young deaf woman
said that this was the first time in her life that she had con-
versed with one of her teachers without using an interpreter
intermediary. She further commented that this had been her most
valuable course in her college experience because she could share
in the discussions so easily and totally. Computer conferencing,
because it avoids commuting, can be a benefit to persons with
mobility impairments. They can go to school while they stay at
home. The distance involved could be anything from a few miles to
all the way across the continent or across an ocean. Students
with motor impairments can also use this system. There are a
variety of alternate input devices to let motor impaired persons
use a computer even though they cannot handle a keyboard.
 
   Like others who use computer communications, I discovered that
it liberates more than the physically disabled. Students became
free to share more of themselves than in a classroom, and shy
students found themselves less inhibited. Once students got over
any initial computer phobia, many shy students found it easier to
share this way. Where there is no stage then there is no stage
fright. While some educators prefer to keep the teaching process
academic and objective, others are convinced that students learn
more and better when they become emotionally engaged in the
process. I was surprised and pleased to find my classes sharing
experiences about their families and themselves. In a discussion
on welfare, one woman in her twenties confessed to being on
welfare and described her feelings about it. In a Black History
course, students described personal experiences as victims of
racism. White students admitted to having been taught to be
prejudiced and asked for help and understanding. Black students
shared that they had prejudices about various shades of color
within their own community. As a teacher, I often felt that I was
treading on privileged ground. These were experiences I had never
had in the 29 previous years of my teaching career. The students,
themselves, became aware of what they were doing and usually
began to discuss their interaction as one of the class topics.
They appreciated that they were sharing in an unusual way and
thanked me for creating the opportunity for them.
 
   Freedom to speak one's mind is a two-edged sword. Computer
communications is infamous for people making thoughtless and
irresponsible attacks on one another, often known as "flaming".
In my experience, happily, there has been almost none of this.
First, the teacher has the opportunity to set ground rules and,
more importantly, an emotional and professional atmosphere.
Second, a computer conference is different than electronic mail.
Once a mass mailing has been sent, it is irretrievable. While the
contents of a computer conference are posted publicly for all its
members to see, a message can be removed. On very rare occasions
I have removed a posting before it was read by most of the class.
Usually, I prefer to leave controversial material on the
conference and utilize it as a group learning experience. Actu-
ally, most students seemed intuitively aware of the potential
for misunderstanding and, before criticizing someone, they
frequently asked questions to be sure that they understood what
had be meant by the previous author.
 
   Am I suggesting that computer conferencing and allied
technologies will become the "savior" of American higher
education? Not really! It is only one teaching methodology among
many. Most students would not choose to pursue their entire
college degree using computer communication. However, it will
have a growing significance in special situations. First, its
asynchronous format is a way to solve scheduling conflicts.
Second, it permits students living in remote locations the
opportunity to get a quality education from a reputable
institution. Third, when moderated carefully, it provides a safe
setting for students to share their feelings on controversial
topics. This can be helpful in courses related to sensitive
social issues. The teacher can continue to focus on academic
content while the class may explore its relevance to their
personal lives.
 
   Finally, I am personally excited about the ability of computer
net-working to provide more equal access to education and
information for many persons with physical disabilities. In the
fall of 1991, The Rochester Institute of Technology and Gallaudet
University in Washington will conduct an experiment involving two
courses: one taught from Rochester and the other from Washington,
DC. Students from both campuses will be enrolled in both classes.
While some use will be made of videos and movies, class
discussions and meetings between a student and a teacher will all
be done with computer telecommunications using Internet as the
connecting link. Some students will be hearing impaired, and one
teacher will be blind. In the future, such systems could include
learners from anywhere with an Internet access.
 
   Computer communications has other important implications for
both the print handicapped and those with motor impairments.
Library catalogs can already be accessed from a personal
computer and a modem. Soon, growing numbers of reference works
will be available online also. While the copyright problems are
complex, it seems inevitable that large amounts of text material
from periodicals and books will also be accessible on a computer
network. I still have vivid memories of the first time I
connected my computer to a library catalog and found my book was
really there. It was only a year ago that I had my first
personal, unassisted, access to an encyclopedia. Not only is this
technology liberating to those of us who have physical impair-
ments, but in turn, it will help to make us more productive
members of society.
 
   Not all handicapped persons rush to join the computer world.
Many have become dependent on human support systems. Some of the
hearing impaired students in my classes were very slow to become
involved. Sometimes, independence is frightening, and handi-
capped students may need special assistance to get started. One
such student complained that such a computer course would be
good for someone who had more self discipline than he had.
Another problem is cost. While the personal computer has de-
centralized power and is seen as a democratizing force in
society, it works mainly for the middle class. Unless there is a
deliberate policy to the contrary, such technology will leave the
under class further behind.
 
   Visually impaired computer users, at present, have one growing
worry. They fear that graphic interfaces and touch screens may
take away all that the computer has promised to them. Recently
passed federal legislation has tried to guarantee that future
computer hardware and software be accessible to all the
physically disabled. However, there is no real mechanism to
enforce this. Besides, voluntary awareness and cooperation by
computer providers is a far better approach to the problem.
Educom has established EASI to work within the academic community
for software access, and it is having an important impact on
voluntary compliance. Others believe that adaptive software and
hardware can be produced which can adequately interpret graphic
interfaces for the visually impaired.
 
   Physical disabilities serve as an isolating factor in life.
They also create a tremendous sense of powerlessness. Computer
communications, however, serves to bring the world into one's
home and puts amazing power at one's fingertips. Not only can
this empowerment liberate the handicapped to compete in society
more equally, but the sense of power changes how one feels about
oneself.
 
(Reprinted with permission from EDU Magazine, Digital Equipment
Corporation)
 
                           In Memorial
 
   The Editors and Staff of the Amateur Computerist want to
express our condolences to one of our Founding and Current
Editors, Bill Rohler and to his family on the death of his
father, Roy Rohler. Roy Rohler attended the Ford Trade School
and worked at Ford Motor Company for 42 years, following in the
footsteps of his father, and Bill's grandfather, Roman Rohler,
who also worked at Ford. Bill is thus a third generation Ford
worker.
   Though we are saddened by the loss, we are grateful for the
contributions made by Roy Rohler both to his family and to the
production that has built the U.S.
 
   The Editors and Staff of the Amateur Computerist also want to
express our condolences to another Founding and Current Editor,
Norman O. Thompson and to his family, on the death of his father,
Ernest Thompson. Ernest Thompson was born in South Carolina, and
worked at many different jobs. In 1926 he came to Detroit. In
1943 he hired in at Rockwell International and worked there for
25 years, retiring in 1968. The obituary read at his funeral
explained that he was "self-educated and knew all about life".
Ernest was a UAW member, acting as shop steward for a while dur-
ing the early days of the union. Thus Norman is a second
generation UAW member. Ernest was one of the generation of
workers known as tough cookies who were hardened by their years
of work in pre union days. This generation was responsible for
the many gains made by the unsung pioneers who built the UAW.
   We are saddened by the loss, but grateful for the strength and
integrity Ernest Thompson passed on to his family and friends.
 
 
     ELECTRONIC EDITION AVAILABLE  
                               
     Starting with vol 4, no 2-3,   
     the Amateur Computerist has    
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     It is stored in the directory: 
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         EDITORIAL STAFF         
           Ronda Hauben           
          William Rohler          
        Norman O. Thompson        
                                  
          Michael Hauben          
            Jay Hauben            
                                  
The Amateur Computerist invites contribution of articles, programs
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| Michael Hauben    CC '95      | Write ME for the NEW Amateur Computerist   |
| hauben@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu | Special Supplement on Usenet News called   |
| am893@cleveland.freenet.edu   | "The Wonderful World of Usenet News"       |
Newsgroups: alt.amateur-comp,comp.org.eff.talk,soc.culture.usa,alt.activism