The citizenary are entertained or culturally uplifted, the shopkeepers get the trade, and everybody is happy. Guest users will have access to a considerable amount of local information, and possibly to samples of remote information which has been downloaded or cached. The public workstations will be running on SLIP connections, and SLIP connections will also be available to the dial-up user. Already, a number of State Government Departments and related bodies have either contributed information, or are working towards that end. Because a significant volume of our users will be using dial up lines, with modems which will be of 14.4 bps capacity at best, the amount of sound and video utilised will be relatively small.
Pictures are a different story.
The December issue will include video clips as well as still images. How the Victorian community takes to this medium still remains to be seen. The uncertainties surrounding Internet access have intensified over the period since. Volume charging has been one major source of anxiety, while the Vice Chancellors' decision to impose differential charging rates has meant that the universities in Victoria are unwilling to allow access to Victorian regional nodes of the existing AARNet infrastructure. While free access was envisaged initially, the Vice Chancellors' volume charging has well and truly put an end to what was perhaps always an unrealistic goal.