not provide them. In general, if you can use telnet and ftp, chances are
good you can use these services as well.
====
This is the Net equivalent of a telephone conversation and requires that
both you and the person you want to talk to have access to this function and
are online at the same time. To use it, type
talk user@site.name
where that is the e-mail address of the other person. She will see
something like this on her screen:
talk: connection requested by yourname@site.name
talk: respond with: talk yourname@site.name
To start the conversation, she should then type (at her host system's
command line):
talk yourname@site.name
where that is your e-mail address. Both of you will then get a top and
bottom window on your screen. She will see everything you type in one
window; you'll see everything she types in the other. To disconnect, hit
control-C.
One note: Public-access sites that use Sun computers sometimes have
trouble with the talk program. If talk does not work, try typing `otalk' ot
`ntalk' instead. However, the party at the other end will have to have the
same program online for the connection to work.
===================
IRC is a program that lets you hold live keyboard conversations with
people around the world. It's a lot like an international CB radio - it
even uses "channels." Type something on your computer and it's instantly
echoed around the world to whoever happens to be on the same channel with
you. You can join in existing public group chats or set up your own. You
can even create a private channel for yourself and as few as one or two other
people. And just like on a CB radio, you can give yourself a unique "handle"
or nickname.
IRC currently links host systems in 20 different countries, from Australia
to Hong Kong to Israel.
Unfortunately, it's like telnet - either your site has it or it doesn't.
If your host system does have it, Just type
irc
and hit enter. You'll get something like this:
*** Connecting to port 6667 of server world.std.com
*** Welcome to the Internet Relay Network, adamg
*** Your host is world.std.com, running version 2.7.1e+4
*** You have new mail.
*** If you have not already done so, please read the new user
information with +/HELP NEWUSER
*** This server was created Sat Apr 18 1992 at 16:27:02 EDT
*** There are 364 users on 140 servers
*** 45 users have connection to the twilight zone
*** There are 124 channels.
*** I have 1 clients and 3 servers
MOTD - world.std.com Message of the Day -
MOTD - Be careful out there...
MOTD -
MOTD - ->Spike
* End of /MOTD command.
23:13 [1] adamg [Mail: 32] * type /help for help
You are now in channel 0, the "null" channel, in which you can look up
various help files, but not much else. As you can see, IRC takes over your
entire screen. The top of the screen is where messages will appear. The
last line is where you type IRC commands and messages. All IRC commands
begin with a `/'. The slash tells the computer you are about to enter a
command, rather than a message. To see what channels are available, type
/list
and hit enter. You'll get something like this:
*** Channel Users Topic
*** #Money 1 School CA$H (/msg SOS_AID help)
*** #Gone 1 ----->> Gone with the wind!!! ------>>>>>
*** #mee 1
*** #eclipse 1
*** #hiya 2
*** #saigon 4
*** #screwed 3
*** #z 2
*** #comix 1 LET'S TALK 'BOUT COMIX!!!!!
*** #Drama 1
*** #RayTrace 1 Rendering to Reality and Back
*** #NeXT 1
*** #wicca 4 Mr. Potato Head, R. I. P.
*** #dde^mhe` 1 no'ng chay? mo*? ...ba` con o*iiii
*** #jgm 1
*** #ucd 1
*** #Maine 2
*** #Snuffland 1
*** #p/g! 4
*** #DragonSrv 1
Because IRC allows for a large number of channels, the list might scroll
off your screen, so you might want to turn on your computer's screen capture
to capture the entire list. Note that the channels always have names,
instead of numbers. Each line in the listing tells you the channel name, the
number of people currently in it, and whether there's a specific topic for
it. To switch to a particular channel, type
/join #channel
where `#channel' is the channel name and hit enter. Some "public"
channels actually require an invitation from somebody already on it. To
request an invitation, type
/who #channel-name
where `channel-name' is the name of the channel, and hit enter. Then ask
someone with an @ next to their name if you can join in. Note that whenever
you enter a channel, you have to include the `#'. Choose one with a number
of users, so you can see IRC in action.
If it's a busy channel, as soon as you join it, the top of your screen
will quickly be filled with messages. Each will start with a person's IRC
nickname, followed by his message.
It may seem awfully confusing at first. There could be two or three
conversations going on at the same time and sometimes the messages will come
in so fast you'll wonder how you can read them all.
Eventually, though, you'll get into the rhythm of the channel and things
will begin to make more sense. You might even want to add your two cents (in
fact, don't be surprised if a message to you shows up on your screen right
away; on some channels, newcomers are welcomed immediately). To enter a
public message, simply type it on that bottom line (the computer knows it's a
message because you haven't started the line with a slash) and hit enter.
Public messages have a user's nickname in brackets, like this:
If you receive a private message from somebody, his name will be between
asterisks, like this:
*tomg*
For more information on using IRC, see the IRC command box. You can find
discussions about IRC in the `alt.irc' newsgroup.
============
Note: Hit enter after each command.
`/away'
When you're called away to put out a grease fire in the kitchen, issue
this command to let others know you're still connected but just away
from your terminal or computer for awhile.
`/help'
Brings up a list of commands for which there is a help file. You will
get a "topic:" prompt. Type in the subject for which you want
information and hit enter. Hit enter by itself to exit help.
`/invite'
Asks another IRC to join you in a conversation.
`/invite fleepo #hottub'
would send a message to fleepo asking him to join you on the #hottub
channel. The channel name is optional.
`/join'
Use this to switch to or create a particular channel, like this: `/join
#hottub'
If one of these channels exists and is not a private one, you will enter
it. Otherwise, you have just created it. Note you have to use a `#' as
the first character.
`/list'
This will give you a list of all available public channels, their topics
(if any) and the number of users currently on them. Hidden and private
channels are not shown.
`/m name'
Send a private message to that user.
`/mode'
This lets you determine who can join a channel you've created.
`/mode #channel +s'
creates a secret channel.
`/mode #channel +p'
makes the channel private
`/nick'
This lets you change the name by which others see you.
`/nick fleepo' would change your name for the present session to fleepo.
People can still use /whois to find your e-mail address. If you try to
enter a channel where somebody else is already using that nickname, IRC
will ask you to select another name.
`/query'
This sets up a private conversation between you and another IRC user.
To do this, type `/query nickname'
Every message you type after that will go only to that person. If she
then types `/query nickname' where nickname is yours, then you have
established a private conversation. To exit this mode, type `/query' by
itself. While in query mode, you and the other person can continue to
"listen" to the discussion on whatever public channels you were on,
although neither of you will be able to respond to any of the messages
there.
`/quit'
Exit IRC.
`/signoff'
Exit IRC.
`/summon'
Asks somebody connected to a host system with IRC to join you on IRC.
You must use the person's entire e-mail address.
`/summon fleepo@foo.bar.com' would send a message to fleepo asking him
to start IRC. Usually not a good idea to just summon people unless you
know they're already amenable to the idea; otherwise you may wind up
annoying them no end. This command does not work on all sites.
`/topic'
When you've started a new channel, use this command to let others know
what it's about.
`/topic #Amiga' would tell people who use /list that your channel is
meant for discussing Amiga computers.
`/who'
Shows you the e-mail address of people on a particular channel.
`/who #foo' would show you the addresses of everybody on channel foo.
`/who' by itself shows you every e-mail address for every person on IRC
at the time, although be careful: on a busy night you might get a list
of 500 names!
`/whois'
Use this to get some information about a specific IRC user or to see who
is online.
`/whois nickname' will give you the e-mail address for the person using
that nickname.
`/whois *' will list everybody on every channel.
`/whowas'
Similar to `/whois'; gives information for people who recently signed
off IRC.
MUDs
====
Multiple-User Dimensions or Dungeons (MUDs) take IRC into the DUM realm of
fantasy. MUDs are live, role-playing games in which you enter assume a new
identity and enter an alternate reality through your keyboard. As you
explore this other world, through a series of simple commands (such as
"look," "go" and "take"), you'll run across other users, who may engage you
in a friendly discussion, enlist your aid in some quest or try to kill you
for no apparent reason.
Each MUD has its own personality and creator (or God) who was willing to
put in the long hours required to establish the particular MUD's rules, laws
of nature and information databases. Some MUDs stress the social aspects of
online communications - users frequently gather online to chat and join
together to build new structures or even entire realms. Others are closer to
"Dungeons and Dragons" and are filled with sorcerers, dragons and evil people
out to keep you from completing your quest - through murder if necessary.
Many MUDs (there are also related games known as MUCKs and MUSEs) require
you to apply in advance, through e-mail, for a character name and password.
One that lets you look around first, though, is HoloMuck at McGill University
in Montreal. The premise of this game is that you arrive in the middle of
Tanstaafl, a city on the planet Holo. You have to find a place to live (else
you get thrown into the homeless shelter) and then you can begin exploring.
Magic is allowed on this world, but only outside the city limits. Get bored
with the city and you can roam the rest of the world or even take a trip into
orbit (of course, all this takes money; you can either wait for your weekly
salary or take a trip to the city casino). Once you become familiar with the
city and get your own character, you can even begin erecting your own
building (or subway line, or almost anything else).
To connect, telnet to `hobbes.cs.mcgill.ca 5757'
When you connect, type
connect guest guest
and hit enter. This connects you to the "guest" account, which has a
password of "guest." You'll see this:
Your pager beeps twice, indicating no messages.
The Homeless Shelter(#22Rna)
You wake up in the town's Homeless Shelter, where vagrants are put for
protective holding.
Please don't sleep in public places-- there are plenty of
open apartments in Tanstaafl Towers, to the southwest of center.
There is a small sign on the wall here, with helpful information.
Type 'look sign' to read it.
The door is standing open for your return to respectable society.
Simply walk 'out' to the center.
Of course, you want to join respectable society, but first you want to see
what that sign says. So you type
look sign
and hit enter, which brings up a list of some basic commands. Then you
type
out
followed by enter, which brings up this:
You slip out the door, and head southeast...
Tanstaafl Center
This is the center of the beautiful town of Tanstaafl.
High Street runs north and south into residential areas, while
Main Street runs east and west into business districts.
SW: is Tanstaafl Towers.
Please claim an apartment... no sleeping in public!
SE: the Public Library offers both information and entertainment.
NW: is the Homeless Shelter, formerly the Town Jail.
NE: is Town Hall, site of several important services, including: Public
Message Board, Bureau of Land Management (with maps and regulations), and
other governmental/ bureaucratic help.
Down: Below a sign marked with both red and blue large letter 'U's, a
staircase leads into an underground subway passage.
(Feel free to 'look' in any direction for more information.)
[Obvious exits: launch, d, nw, se, w, e, n, s, ne, sw]
Contents:
Instructions for newcomers
Directional signpost
Founders' statue
To see "Instructions for newcomers", type
look Instructions for newcomers
and hit enter. You could do the same for "Directional signpost" and
"Founders' statue." Then type
SW
and enter to get to Tanstaafl Towers, the city housing complex, where you
have to claim an apartment (you may have to look around; many will already)
be occupied. And now it's off to explore Holo! One command you'll want to
keep in mind is "take." Periodically, you'll come across items that, when you
take them will confer certain abilities or powers on you. If you type
help
and enter, you'll get a list of files you can read to learn more about the
MUD's commands.
The "say" command lets you talk to other players publicly. For example,
say Hey, I'm here!
would be broadcast to everybody else in the room with you. If you want to
talk to just one particular person, use "whisper" instead of "say."
whisper agora Hey, I'm here!
would be heard only by agora. Another way to communicate with somebody
regardless of where on the world they are is through your pager. If you
suddenly see yours go off while visiting, chances are it's a wizard checking
to see if you need any help. To read his message, type
pager
To send him a message, type
page name message
where name is the wizard's name (it'll be in the original message).
Other MUDs and MUCKs may have different commands, but generally use the
same basic idea of letting you navigate through relatively simple English
commands. Every Friday, SCOTT GOEHRING posts a new list of MUDs and related
games and their telnet addresses in the newsgroup `rec.games.mud.announce'.
There are several other mud newsgroups related to specific types of MUDs,
including `rec.games.mud.social', `rec.games.mud.adventure',
`rec.games.mud.tiny', `rec.games.mud.diku' and `rec.games.mud.lp'.
When you connect to a MUD, choose your password as carefully as you would
one for your host system; alas, there are MUD crackers who enjoy trying to
break into other people's MUD accounts. And never, never use the same
password as the one you use on your host system!
MUDs can prove highly addicting. "The jury is still out on whether
MUDding is 'just a game' or 'an extension of real life with gamelike
qualities'," says JENNIFER SMITH, an active MUD player who wrote an FAQ on
the subject.
She adds one caution: "You shouldn't do anything that you wouldn't do in
real life, even if the world is a fantasy world. The important thing to
remember is that it's the fantasy world of possibly hundreds of people, and
not just yours in particular. There's a human being on the other side of
each and every wire! Always remember that you may meet these other people
some day, and they may break your nose. People who treat others badly
gradually build up bad reputations and eventually receive the NO FUN Stamp of
Disapproval."
==========================
All is not fun and games on the Net. Like any community, the Net has its
share of obnoxious characters who seem to exist only to make your life
miserable (you've already met some of them in the chapter on Usenet). There
are people who seem to spend a bit more time on the Net than many would find
healthy. It also has its criminals. CLIFFORD STOLL writes in "The Cuckoo's
Egg" how he tracked a team of German hackers who were breaking into U.S.
computers and selling the information they found to the Soviets. ROBERT
MORRIS, a Cornell University student, was convicted of unleashing a "worm"
program that effectively disabled several thousand computers connected to the
Internet.
Of more immediate concern to the average Net user are crackers who seek to
find other's passwords to break into Net systems and people who infect
programs on ftp sites with viruses.
There is a widely available program known as "Crack" that can decipher
user passwords composed of words that might be found in a dictionary (this is
why you shouldn't use such passwords). Short of that, there are the annoying
types who, as mentioned above, take a special thrill in trying to make you
miserable. The best advice in dealing with them is to count to 10 and then
ignore them - like juveniles everywhere, most of their fun comes in seeing
how upset you can get.
Meanwhile, two Cornell University students pled guilty in 1992 to
uploading virus-infected Macintosh programs to ftp sites. If you plan to try
out large amounts of software from ftp sites, it might be wise to download or
buy a good anti-viral program.
But can law enforcement go too far in seeking out the criminals? The
Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in large part in response to a
series of government raids against an alleged gang of hackers. The raids
resulted in the near bankruptcy of one game company never alleged to have had
anything to do with the hackers, when the government seized its computers and
refused to give them back. The case against another alleged participant
collapsed in court when his attorney showed the "proprietary" and supposedly
hacked information he printed in an electronic newsletter was actually
available via an 800 number for about $13 - from the phone company from which
that data was taken.
FYI:
====
You can find discussions about IRC in the `alt.irc' newsgroup. "A
Discussion on Computer Network Conferencing", by Darren Reed (May, 1992),
provides a theoretical background on why conferencing systems such as IRC are
a Good Thing. It's available through ftp at `nic.ddn.mil' as file
`rfc/rfc1324.txt'.
For a good overview of the impact on the Internet of the Morris Worm, read
"Virus Highlights Need for Improved Internet Management", by the U.S. General
Accounting Office (June, 1989). You can get a copy via ftp from
`cert.sei.cmu.edu' in the `pub/virus-l/docs' directory. It's listed as
`gao_rpt'.
Clifford Stoll describes how the Internet works and how he tracked a group
of KGB-paid German hackers through it, in "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy
through the Maze of Computer Espionage", Doubleday (1989).
See also Bruce Sterling's essay (*Note Statement of Principle::).
*"F: When into a room I plunge, I
Sometimes find some VIOLET FUNGI.
Then I linger, darkly brooding
On the poison they're exuding.
H: If a 'GOBLIN (HOB) waylays you,
Slice him up before he slays you.
Nothing makes you look a slob
Like running from a HOB'LIN (GOB).
K: Cobalt's metal, hard and shining;
Cobol's wordy and confining;
KOBOLDS topple when you strike them;
Don't feel bad, it's hard to like them.
T: One big monster, he called TROLL.
He don't rock, and he don't roll;
Drink no wine, and smoke no stogies.
He just Love To Eat Them Roguies.
U: There's a U - a Unicorn!
Run right up and rub its horn.
Look at all those points you're losing!
UMBER HULKS are so confusing."*
-- The Roguelet's ABC
*********************
If you're a teacher, you've probably already begun to see the potential
the Net has for use in the class. Usenet, ftp and telnet have tremendous
educational potential, from keeping up with world events to arranging
international science experiments.
Because the Net now reaches so many countries and often stays online even
when the phones go down, you and your students can "tune in" to first-hand
accounts during international conflicts. Look at your system's list of
Usenet `soc.culture.*' groups to see if there is one about the country or
region you're interested in. Even in peacetime, these newsgroups can be
great places to find people from countries you might be studying.
The biggest problem may be getting accounts for your students, if you're
not lucky enough to live within the local calling area of a Free-Net system.
Many colleges and universities, however, are willing to discuss providing
accounts for secondary students at little or no cost. Several states,
including California and Texas, have Internet-linked networks for teachers
and students.
In addition, there are a number of resources on the Internet aimed
specifically at elementary and secondary students and teachers. You can use
these to set up science experiments with classes in another country, learn
how to use computers in the classroom or keep up with the latest advances in
teaching everything from physics to physical education.
Some of these resources are listed in the follwoing.
======
Begun on the Fidonet hobbyist network, K12Net is now also carried on many
Usenet systems and provides a host of interesting and valuable services.
These include international chat for students, foreign-language discussions
(for example, there are French and German-only conference where American
students can practice those languages with students from Quebec and German).
There are also conferences aimed at teachers of specific subjects, from
physical education to physics. The K12 network still has limited
distribution, so ask your system administrator if your system carries it.
========
If your system doesn't carry K12, but has access to telnet, you can reach
it through SpaceMet Forum, a bulletin-board system aimed at teachers and
students that is run by the physics and astronomy department at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The address is
`spacemet.phast.umass.edu'. When you connect, hit escape once. Like K12,
SpaceMet Forum began as a Fidonet system, but has since grown much larger.
Mort and Helen Sternheim, professors at the university, started SpaceMet as a
one-line bulletin-board system several years ago to help bolster
middle-school science education in nearby towns.
Today, there is a whole series of satellite SpaceMet BBSs in western
Massachusetts and SpaceMet itself is now linked to Fidonet and Internet.
In addition to the K12 conferences, SpaceMet carries numerous
educationally oriented conferences. It also has a large file library of
interest to educators and students, but be aware that getting files to your
site could be difficult and maybe even impossible. Unlike most other
Internet sites, Spacemet does not use an ftp interface. The Sternheims say
ZMODEM sometimes works over the network, but don't count on it.
=========
Kidsphere is a mailing list for elementary and secondary teachers, who use
it to arrange joint projects and discuss educational telecommunications. You
will find news of new software, lists of sites from which you can get
computer-graphics pictures from various NASA satellites and probes and other
news of interest to modem-using teachers.
To subscribe, send a request by e-mail to
or try and
you will start receiving messages within a couple of days. To contribute to
the discussion, send messages to.
KIDS is a spin-off of KIDSPHERE just for students who want to contact
students. To subscribe, send a request to, as
above. To contribute, send messages to.
==========
A mailing list for health educators. Send a request to
.
=========
PAPA is a mailing list about Hemingway and his work. To get on the list,
send a request to.
==============
This system, run by NASA in Huntsville, Ala., provides all sorts of
reports and data about NASA, its history and its various missions, past and
present. Telnet `spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov' or 128.158.13.250.
When you connect, you'll be given an overview of the system and asked to
register. The system maintains a large file library of GIF-format space
graphics, but note that you can't download these through telnet. If you want
to, you have to dial the system directly, at (205) 895-0028. Many can be
obtained through ftp from `ames.arc.nasa.gov', however.
======
This is another BBS-like system, run by the Argonne National Laboratory.
It offers conferences for teachers and students, including one called "Ask a
Scientist." Telnet: `newton.dep.anl.gov'. Log in as: cocotext
You'll be asked to provide your name and address. When you get the main
menu, hit `4' for the various conferences. The "Ask a Scientist" category
lets you ask questions of scientists in fields from biology to earth science.
Other categories let you discuss teaching, sports and computer networks.
=====================
To get a list of ftp sites that carry astronomical images in the GIF
graphics format, use ftp to connect to `nic.funet.fi'. Switch to the
`/pub/astro/general' directory and get the file `astroftp.txt'. Among the
sites listed is `ames.arc.nasa.gov', which carries images taken by the
Voyager and Galileo probes, among other pictures.
=====================================
There are numerous Usenet newsgroups of potential interest to teachers and
students.
As you might expect, many are of a scientific bent. You can find these by
typing `l sci.' in rn or using `nngrep sci.' for nn. There are now close to
40, with subjects ranging from archaeology to economics (the "dismal
science," remember?) to astronomy to nanotechnology (the construction of
microscopically small machines).
One thing students will quickly learn from many of these groups: science
is not just dull, boring facts. Science is argument and standing your ground
and making your case. The Usenet `sci.*' groups encourage critical thinking.
Beyond science, social-studies and history classes can keep busy learning
about other countries, through the `soc.culture.*' newsgroups.
Most of these newsgroups originated as ways for expatriates of a given
country to keep in touch with their homeland and its culture. In times of
crisis, however, these groups often become places to disseminate information
from or into the country and to discuss what is happening. From Afghanistan
to Yugoslavia, close to 50 countries are now represented on Usenet.
To see which groups are available, use `l soc.culture.' in rn or `nngrep
soc.culture.' for nn.
Several "talk" newsgroups provide additional topical discussions, but
teachers should screen them first before recommending them to students. They
range from `talk.abortion', via `talk.politics. guns' to
`talk.politics.space', and `talk.environment'.
There are also a number of Bitnet discussion groups of potential interest
to students and teachers. *Note Mailing Lists:: for information on finding
and subscribing to Bitnet discussion groups. Some with an educational
orientation include:
biopi-l ksuvm.bitnet Secondary biology education
chemed-l uwf.bitnet Chemistry education
dts-l iubvm.bitnet The Dead Teacher's Society list
phys-l uwf.bitnet Discussions for physics teachers
physhare psuvm.bitnet Where physics teachers share resources
scimathl psuvm.bitnet Science and math education
FYI:
====
Carl Erickson has written an interesting
paper, entitled "USENET as a Teaching Tool", published in the Proceedings of
24th, ACM Conference on Science and Education (CSE-2/93-IN).
*"A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into
superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education."*
-- George Bernhard Shaw
*"Education is the process of casting false pearls before real swine."*
-- Irsin Edman
*"It is against the grain of modern education to teach children to program.
What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts,
devoting attention to detail, and learning to be self-critical?"*
-- Alan Perlis
*************************************
*The revolution is just beginning.*
New communications systems and digital technologies have already meant
dramatic changes in the way we live. Think of what is already routine that
would have been considered impossible just ten years ago. You can browse
through the holdings of your local library - or of libraries halfway around
the world - do your banking and see if your neighbor has gone bankrupt, all
through a computer and modem.
Imploding costs coupled with exploding power are bringing ever more
powerful computer and digital systems to ever growing numbers of people. The
Net, with its rapidly expanding collection of databases and other information
sources, is no longer limited to the industrialized nations of the West;
today the web extends into once remote areas from Siberia to Zimbabwe. The
cost of computers and modems used to plug into the Net, meanwhile, continue
to plummet, making them ever more affordable.
Cyberspace has become a vital part of millions of people's daily lives.
People form relationships online, they fall in love, they get married, all
because of initial contacts in cyberspace, that ephemeral "place" that
transcends national and state boundaries. Business deals are transacted
entirely in ASCII. Political and social movements begin online, coordinated
by people who could be thousands of miles apart.
*Yet this is only the beginning.*
We live in an age of communication, yet, the various media we use to talk
to one another remain largely separate systems. One day, however, your
telephone, TV, fax machine and personal computer will be replaced by a single
"information processor" linked to the worldwide Net by strands of optical
fiber.
Beyond databases and file libraries, power will be at your fingertips.
Linked to thousands, even millions of like-minded people, you'll be able to
participate in social and political movements across the country and around
the world.
How does this happen? In part, it will come about through new
technologies. High-definition television will require the development of
inexpensive computers that can process as much information as today's work
stations. Telephone and cable companies will compete to see who can bring
those fiber-optic cables into your home first. High- speed data networks,
such as the Internet, will be replaced by even more powerful systems.
Vice President ALBERT GORE, who successfully fought for a landmark funding
bill for a new high-speed national computer network in 1990, talks of
creating "information superhighways."
Right now, we are in the network equivalent of the early 1950s, just
before the creation of the Interstate highway system. Sure, there are plenty
of interesting things out there, but you have to meander along two-lane
roads, and have a good map, to get to them.
Creation of this new Net will also require a new communications paradigm:
the Net as information utility. The Net remains a somewhat complicated and
mysterious place. To get something out of the Net today, you have to spend a
fair amount of time with a Net veteran or a manual like this. You have to
learn such arcana as the vagaries of the Unix cd command.
Contrast this with the telephone, which now also provides access to large
amounts of information through push buttons, or a computer network such as
Prodigy, which one navigates through simple commands and mouse clicks.
Internet system administrators have begun to realize that not all people
want to learn the intricacies of Unix, and that that fact does not make them
bad people. Coming years will see the development of simpler interfaces that
will put the Net's power to use by millions of people, just as the number of
host systems offering public access to the Net will skyrocket.
Gophers and Wide-Area Information Servers have become two of the fastest
growing applications on the Net. They are relatively simple to use and yet
offer access to vast amounts of information. Mail programs and text editors
such as Pico and Pine promise much of the power of older programs such as
emacs at a fraction of the complexity.
Some software engineers are looking at taking this even further, by
creating graphical interfaces that will let somebody navigate the Internet
just by clicking on the screen with a mouse or by calling up an easy text
editor, sort of the way one can now navigate a Macintosh computer - or a
commercial online service such as Prodigy.
*Then there are the Internet services themselves.*
For every database now available through the Internet, there are probably
three or four that are not. Government agencies are only slowing beginning
to connect their storehouses of information to the Net. Several commercial
vendors, from database services to booksellers, have made their services
available through the Net.
Few people now use one of the Net's more interesting applications. A
standard known as MIME lets one send audio and graphics files in a message.
Imagine opening your e-mail one day to hear your granddaughter's first words,
or a "photo" of your friend's new house. Eventually, this standard could
allow for distribution of even small video displays over the Net.
All of this will require vast new amounts of Net power, to handle both the
millions of new people who will jump onto the Net and the new applications
they want. Replicating a moving image on a computer screen alone takes a
phenomenal amount of computer bits, and computing power to arrange them.
The legislation pushed by Gore in 1991 will eventually replace the
existing Internet in the U.S. with the National Research and Education
Network.
At the center of NREN will be a "backbone" that, in one second, will be
able to move as much as 3 billion bits of information from coast to coast -
the equivalent of shipping the contents of a large encyclopedia from New York
to Los Angeles electronically. That seems like a silly thing to do. But that
kind of speed allows for widespread distribution of complex files, such as
video loops, without bogging down the entire Net. Its capacity will let
millions more people onto the Net.
As these "superhighways" grow, so will the "on ramps," for a high- speed
road does you little good if you can't get to it. The costs of modems seem
to fall as fast as those of computers. High-speed modems (9600 baud and up)
are becoming increasingly affordable. At 9600 baud, you can download a
satellite weather image of North America in less than two minutes, a file
that, with a slower modem could take up to 20 minutes to download.
Eventually, homes could be connected directly to a national digital network.
Most long-distance phone traffic is already carried in digital form, through
high-volume optical fibers. Phone companies are ever so slowly working to
extend these fibers the "final mile" to the home. The Electronic Frontier
Foundation is working to ensure these links are affordable.
Beyond the technical questions are increasingly thorny social, political
and economic issues. Who is to have access to these services, and at what
cost? If we live in an information age, are we laying the seeds for a new
information under class, unable to compete with those fortunate enough to
have the money and skills needed to manipulate new communications channels?
Who, in fact, decides who has access to what? As more companies realize the
potential profits to be made in the new information infrastructure, what
happens to such systems as Usenet, possibly the world's first successful
anarchistic system, where everybody can say whatever they want?
What are the laws of the electronic frontier? When national and state
boundaries lose their meaning in cyberspace, the question might even be: WHO
is the law? What if a practice that is legal in one country is "committed"
in another country where it is illegal, over a computer network that crosses
through a third country? Who goes after computer crackers?
*What role will you play in the revolution?*
*"The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it."*
-- Abbie Hoffman
*"The only act of revolution left
in a collective world, is thinking for yourself."*
-- Bob Geldof, "Is that it?"
*"And all else is silence."*
-- Shakespeare, "Hamlet"
*************************************************************
By *Howard Rheingold* (1)
Editor, "The Whole Earth Review", 27 Gate Five Road, Sausalito, CA 94965.
NOTE: In 1988, "Whole Earth Review" published my article, "Virtual
Communities." Four years later, I reread it and realized that I had
learned a few things, and that the world I was observing had changed.
So I rewrote it. The original version is available on the WELL as
`/uh/72/hlr/virtual_communities88'.
Portions of this will appear in "Globalizing Networks: Computers and
International Communication", edited by *Linda Harasim* and *Jan Walls*
for MIT press. Portions of this will appear in "Virtual Communities," by
Howard Rheingold, Addison-Wesley. Portions of this may find their way
into Whole Earth Review.
This is a world-readable file, and I think these are important issues;
encourage distribution, but I do ask for fair use: Don't remove my name
from my words when you quote or reproduce them, don't change them, and
don't impair my ability to make a living with them.
I'm a writer, so I spend a lot of time alone in a room with my words and
my thoughts. On occasion, I venture outside to interview people or to find
information. After work, I reenter the human community, via my family, my
neighborhood, my circle of acquaintances. But that regime left me feeling
isolated and lonely during the working day, with few opportunities to expand
my circle of friends. For the past seven years, however, I have participated
in a wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, professionally rewarding,
sometimes painful, and often intensely emotional ongoing interchange with
dozens of new friends, hundreds of colleagues, thousands of acquaintances.
And I still spend many of my days in a room, physically isolated. My mind,
however, is linked with a worldwide collection of like-minded (and not so
like-minded) souls: My virtual community.
Virtual communities emerged from a surprising intersection of humanity and
technology. When the ubiquity of the world telecommunications network is
combined with the information-structuring and storing capabilities of
computers, a new communication medium becomes possible. As we've learned from
the history of the telephone, radio, television, people can adopt new
communication media and redesign their way of life with surprising rapidity.
Computers, modems, and communication networks furnish the technological
infrastructure of computer-mediated communication (CMC); cyberspace is the
conceptual space where words and human relationships, data and wealth and
power are manifested by people using CMC technology; virtual communities are
cultural aggregations that emerge when enough people bump into each other
often enough in cyberspace.
A virtual community as they exist today is a group of people who may or
may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas
through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks. In
cyberspace, we chat and argue, engage in intellectual intercourse, perform
acts of commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans,
brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play
games and metagames, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk.
We do everything people do when people get together, but we do it with words
on computer screens, leaving our bodies behind. Millions of us have already
built communities where our identities commingle and interact electronically,
independent of local time or location. The way a few of us live now might be
the way a larger population will live, decades hence.
The pioneers are still out there exploring the frontier, the borders of
the domain have yet to be determined, or even the shape of it, or the best
way to find one's way in it. But people are using the technology of
computer-mediated communications CMC technology to do things with each other
that weren't possible before. Human behavior in cyberspace, as we can observe
it and participate in it today, is going to be a crucially important factor.
The ways in which people use CMC always will be rooted in human needs, not
hardware or software.
If the use of virtual communities turns out to answer a deep and
compelling need in people, and not just snag onto a human foible like pinball
or pac-man, today's small online enclaves may grow into much larger networks
over the next twenty years. The potential for social change is a side-effect
of the trajectory of telecommunications and computer industries, as it can be
forecast for the next ten years. This odd social revolution - communities of
people who may never or rarely meet face to face - might piggyback on the
technologies that the biggest telecommunication companies already are
planning to install over the next ten years.
It is possible that the hardware and software of a new global
telecommunications infrastructure, orders of magnitude more powerful than
today's state of the art, now moving from the laboratories to the market,
will expand the reach of this spaceless place throughout the 1990s to a much
wider population than today's hackers, technologists, scholars, students, and
enthusiasts. The age of the online pioneers will end soon, and the cyberspace
settlers will come en-masse. Telecommuters who might have thought they were
just working from home and avoiding one day of gridlock on the freeway will
find themselves drawn into a whole new society. Students and scientists are
already there, artists have made significant inroads, librarians and
educators have their own pioneers as well, and political activists of all
stripes have just begun to discover the power of plugging a computer into a
telephone. When today's millions become tens and hundreds of millions,
perhaps billions, what kind of place, and what kind of model for human
good you can use these services as well.
====
This is the Net equivalent of a telephone conversation and requires that
both you and the person you want to talk to have access to this function and
are online at the same time. To use it, type
talk user@site.name
where that is the e-mail address of the other person. She will see
something like this on her screen:
talk: connection requested by yourname@site.name
talk: respond with: talk yourname@site.name
To start the conversation, she should then type (at her host system's
command line):
talk yourname@site.name
where that is your e-mail address. Both of you will then get a top and
bottom window on your screen. She will see everything you type in one
window; you'll see everything she types in the other. To disconnect, hit
control-C.
One note: Public-access sites that use Sun computers sometimes have
trouble with the talk program. If talk does not work, try typing `otalk' ot
`ntalk' instead. However, the party at the other end will have to have the
same program online for the connection to work.
===================
IRC is a program that lets you hold live keyboard conversations with
people around the world. It's a lot like an international CB radio - it
even uses "channels." Type something on your computer and it's instantly
echoed around the world to whoever happens to be on the same channel with
you. You can join in existing public group chats or set up your own. You
can even create a private channel for yourself and as few as one or two other
people. And just like on a CB radio, you can give yourself a unique "handle"
or nickname.
IRC currently links host systems in 20 different countries, from Australia
to Hong Kong to Israel.
Unfortunately, it's like telnet - either your site has it or it doesn't.
If your host system does have it, Just type
irc
and hit enter. You'll get something like this:
*** Connecting to port 6667 of server world.std.com
*** Welcome to the Internet Relay Network, adamg
*** Your host is world.std.com, running version 2.7.1e+4
*** You have new mail.
*** If you have not already done so, please read the new user
information with +/HELP NEWUSER
*** This server was created Sat Apr 18 1992 at 16:27:02 EDT
*** There are 364 users on 140 servers
*** 45 users have connection to the twilight zone
*** There are 124 channels.
*** I have 1 clients and 3 servers
MOTD - world.std.com Message of the Day -
MOTD - Be careful out there...
MOTD -
MOTD - ->Spike
* End of /MOTD command.
23:13 [1] adamg [Mail: 32] * type /help for help
You are now in channel 0, the "null" channel, in which you can look up
various help files, but not much else. As you can see, IRC takes over your
entire screen. The top of the screen is where messages will appear. The
last line is where you type IRC commands and messages. All IRC commands
begin with a `/'. The slash tells the computer you are about to enter a
command, rather than a message. To see what channels are available, type
/list
and hit enter. You'll get something like this:
*** Channel Users Topic
*** #Money 1 School CA$H (/msg SOS_AID help)
*** #Gone 1 ----->> Gone with the wind!!! ------>>>>>
*** #mee 1
*** #eclipse 1
*** #hiya 2
*** #saigon 4
*** #screwed 3
*** #z 2
*** #comix 1 LET'S TALK 'BOUT COMIX!!!!!
*** #Drama 1
*** #RayTrace 1 Rendering to Reality and Back
*** #NeXT 1
*** #wicca 4 Mr. Potato Head, R. I. P.
*** #dde^mhe` 1 no'ng chay? mo*? ...ba` con o*iiii
*** #jgm 1
*** #ucd 1
*** #Maine 2
*** #Snuffland 1
*** #p/g! 4
*** #DragonSrv 1
Because IRC allows for a large number of channels, the list might scroll
off your screen, so you might want to turn on your computer's screen capture
to capture the entire list. Note that the channels always have names,
instead of numbers. Each line in the listing tells you the channel name, the
number of people currently in it, and whether there's a specific topic for
it. To switch to a particular channel, type
/join #channel
where `#channel' is the channel name and hit enter. Some "public"
channels actually require an invitation from somebody already on it. To
request an invitation, type
/who #channel-name
where `channel-name' is the name of the channel, and hit enter. Then ask
someone with an @ next to their name if you can join in. Note that whenever
you enter a channel, you have to include the `#'. Choose one with a number
of users, so you can see IRC in action.
If it's a busy channel, as soon as you join it, the top of your screen
will quickly be filled with messages. Each will start with a person's IRC
nickname, followed by his message.
It may seem awfully confusing at first. There could be two or three
conversations going on at the same time and sometimes the messages will come
in so fast you'll wonder how you can read them all.
Eventually, though, you'll get into the rhythm of the channel and things
will begin to make more sense. You might even want to add your two cents (in
fact, don't be surprised if a message to you shows up on your screen right
away; on some channels, newcomers are welcomed immediately). To enter a
public message, simply type it on that bottom line (the computer knows it's a
message because you haven't started the line with a slash) and hit enter.
Public messages have a user's nickname in brackets, like this:
If you receive a private message from somebody, his name will be between
asterisks, like this:
*tomg*
For more information on using IRC, see the IRC command box. You can find
discussions about IRC in the `alt.irc' newsgroup.
============
Note: Hit enter after each command.
`/away'
When you're called away to put out a grease fire in the kitchen, issue
this command to let others know you're still connected but just away
from your terminal or computer for awhile.
`/help'
Brings up a list of commands for which there is a help file. You will
get a "topic:" prompt. Type in the subject for which you want
information and hit enter. Hit enter by itself to exit help.
`/invite'
Asks another IRC to join you in a conversation.
`/invite fleepo #hottub'
would send a message to fleepo asking him to join you on the #hottub
channel. The channel name is optional.
`/join'
Use this to switch to or create a particular channel, like this: `/join
#hottub'
If one of these channels exists and is not a private one, you will enter
it. Otherwise, you have just created it. Note you have to use a `#' as
the first character.
`/list'
This will give you a list of all available public channels, their topics
(if any) and the number of users currently on them. Hidden and private
channels are not shown.
`/m name'
Send a private message to that user.
`/mode'
This lets you determine who can join a channel you've created.
`/mode #channel +s'
creates a secret channel.
`/mode #channel +p'
makes the channel private
`/nick'
This lets you change the name by which others see you.
`/nick fleepo' would change your name for the present session to fleepo.
People can still use /whois to find your e-mail address. If you try to
enter a channel where somebody else is already using that nickname, IRC
will ask you to select another name.
`/query'
This sets up a private conversation between you and another IRC user.
To do this, type `/query nickname'
Every message you type after that will go only to that person. If she
then types `/query nickname' where nickname is yours, then you have
established a private conversation. To exit this mode, type `/query' by
itself. While in query mode, you and the other person can continue to
"listen" to the discussion on whatever public channels you were on,
although neither of you will be able to respond to any of the messages
there.
`/quit'
Exit IRC.
`/signoff'
Exit IRC.
`/summon'
Asks somebody connected to a host system with IRC to join you on IRC.
You must use the person's entire e-mail address.
`/summon fleepo@foo.bar.com' would send a message to fleepo asking him
to start IRC. Usually not a good idea to just summon people unless you
know they're already amenable to the idea; otherwise you may wind up
annoying them no end. This command does not work on all sites.
`/topic'
When you've started a new channel, use this command to let others know
what it's about.
`/topic #Amiga' would tell people who use /list that your channel is
meant for discussing Amiga computers.
`/who
Shows you the e-mail address of people on a particular channel.
`/who #foo' would show you the addresses of everybody on channel foo.
`/who' by itself shows you every e-mail address for every person on IRC
at the time, although be careful: on a busy night you might get a list
of 500 names!
`/whois'
Use this to get some information about a specific IRC user or to see who
is online.
`/whois nickname' will give you the e-mail address for the person using
that nickname.
`/whois *' will list everybody on every channel.
`/whowas'
Similar to `/whois'; gives information for people who recently signed
off IRC.
MUDs
====
Multiple-User Dimensions or Dungeons (MUDs) take IRC into the DUM realm of
fantasy. MUDs are live, role-playing games in which you enter assume a new
identity and enter an alternate reality through your keyboard. As you
explore this other world, through a series of simple commands (such as
"look," "go" and "take"), you'll run across other users, who may engage you
in a friendly discussion, enlist your aid in some quest or try to kill you
for no apparent reason.
Each MUD has its own personality and creator (or God) who was willing to
put in the long hours required to establish the particular MUD's rules, laws
of nature and information databases. Some MUDs stress the social aspects of
online communications - users frequently gather online to chat and join
together to build new structures or even entire realms. Others are closer to
"Dungeons and Dragons" and are filled with sorcerers, dragons and evil people
out to keep you from completing your quest - through murder if necessary.
Many MUDs (there are also related games known as MUCKs and MUSEs) require
you to apply in advance, through e-mail, for a character name and password.
One that lets you look around first, though, is HoloMuck at McGill University
in Montreal. The premise of this game is that you arrive in the middle of
Tanstaafl, a city on the planet Holo. You have to find a place to live (else
you get thrown into the homeless shelter) and then you can begin exploring.
Magic is allowed on this world, but only outside the city limits. Get bored
with the city and you can roam the rest of the world or even take a trip into
orbit (of course, all this takes money; you can either wait for your weekly
salary or take a trip to the city casino). Once you become familiar with the
city and get your own character, you can even begin erecting your own
building (or subway line, or almost anything else).
To connect, telnet to `hobbes.cs.mcgill.ca 5757'
When you connect, type
connect guest guest
and hit enter. This connects you to the "guest" account, which has a
password of "guest." You'll see this:
Your pager beeps twice, indicating no messages.
The Homeless Shelter(#22Rna)
You wake up in the town's Homeless Shelter, where vagrants are put for
protective holding.
Please don't sleep in public places-- there are plenty of
open apartments in Tanstaafl Towers, to the southwest of center.
There is a small sign on the wall here, with helpful information.
Type 'look sign' to read it.
The door is standing open for your return to respectable society.
Simply walk 'out' to the center.
Of course, you want to join respectable society, but first you want to see
what that sign says. So you type
look sign
and hit enter, which brings up a list of some basic commands. Then you
type
out
followed by enter, which brings up this:
You slip out the door, and head southeast...
Tanstaafl Center
This is the center of the beautiful town of Tanstaafl.
High Street runs north and south into residential areas, while
Main Street runs east and west into business districts.
SW: is Tanstaafl Towers.
Please claim an apartment... no sleeping in public!
SE: the Public Library offers both information and entertainment.
NW: is the Homeless Shelter, formerly the Town Jail.
NE: is Town Hall, site of several important services, including: Public
Message Board, Bureau of Land Management (with maps and regulations), and
other governmental/ bureaucratic help.
Down: Below a sign marked with both red and blue large letter 'U's, a
staircase leads into an underground subway passage.
(Feel free to 'look' in any direction for more information.)
[Obvious exits: launch, d, nw, se, w, e, n, s, ne, sw]
Contents:
Instructions for newcomers
Directional signpost
Founders' statue
To see "Instructions for newcomers", type
look Instructions for newcomers
and hit enter. You could do the same for "Directional signpost" and
"Founders' statue." Then type
SW
and enter to get to Tanstaafl Towers, the city housing complex, where you
have to claim an apartment (you may have to look around; many will already)
be occupied. And now it's off to explore Holo! One command you'll want to
keep in mind is "take." Periodically, you'll come across items that, when you
take them will confer certain abilities or powers on you. If you type
help
and enter, you'll get a list of files you can read to learn more about the
MUD's commands.
The "say" command lets you talk to other players publicly. For example,
say Hey, I'm here!
would be broadcast to everybody else in the room with you. If you want to
talk to just one particular person, use "whisper" instead of "say."
whisper agora Hey, I'm here!
would be heard only by agora. Another way to communicate with somebody
regardless of where on the world they are is through your pager. If you
suddenly see yours go off while visiting, chances are it's a wizard checking
to see if you need any help. To read his message, type
pager
To send him a message, type
page name message
where name is the wizard's name (it'll be in the original message).
Other MUDs and MUCKs may have different commands, but generally use the
same basic idea of letting you navigate through relatively simple English
commands. Every Friday, SCOTT GOEHRING posts a new list of MUDs and related
games and their telnet addresses in the newsgroup `rec.games.mud.announce'.
There are several other mud newsgroups related to specific types of MUDs,
including `rec.games.mud.social', `rec.games.mud.adventure',
`rec.games.mud.tiny', `rec.games.mud.diku' and `rec.games.mud.lp'.
When you connect to a MUD, choose your password as carefully as you would
one for your host system; alas, there are MUD crackers who enjoy trying to
break into other people's MUD accounts. And never, never use the same
password as the one you use on your host system!
MUDs can prove highly addicting. "The jury is still out on whether
MUDding is 'just a game' or 'an extension of real life with gamelike
qualities'," says JENNIFER SMITH, an active MUD player who wrote an FAQ on
the subject.
She adds one caution: "You shouldn't do anything that you wouldn't do in
real life, even if the world is a fantasy world. The important thing to
remember is that it's the fantasy world of possibly hundreds of people, and
not just yours in particular. There's a human being on the other side of
each and every wire! Always remember that you may meet these other people
some day, and they may break your nose. People who treat others badly
gradually build up bad reputations and eventually receive the NO FUN Stamp of
Disapproval."
==========================
All is not fun and games on the Net. Like any community, the Net has its
share of obnoxious characters who seem to exist only to make your life
miserable (you've already met some of them in the chapter on Usenet). There
are people who seem to spend a bit more time on the Net than many would find
healthy. It also has its criminals. CLIFFORD STOLL writes in "The Cuckoo's
Egg" how he tracked a team of German hackers who were breaking into U.S.
computers and selling the information they found to the Soviets. ROBERT
MORRIS, a Cornell University student, was convicted of unleashing a "worm"
program that effectively disabled several thousand computers connected to the
Internet.
Of more immediate concern to the average Net user are crackers who seek to
find other's passwords to break into Net systems and people who infect
programs on ftp sites with viruses.
There is a widely available program known as "Crack" that can decipher
user passwords composed of words that might be found in a dictionary (this is
why you shouldn't use such passwords). Short of that, there are the annoying
types who, as mentioned above, take a special thrill in trying to make you
miserable. The best advice in dealing with them is to count to 10 and then
ignore them - like juveniles everywhere, most of their fun comes in seeing
how upset you can get.
Meanwhile, two Cornell University students pled guilty in 1992 to
uploading virus-infected Macintosh programs to ftp sites. If you plan to try
out large amounts of software from ftp sites, it might be wise to download or
buy a good anti-viral program.
But can law enforcement go too far in seeking out the criminals? The
Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in large part in response to a
series of government raids against an alleged gang of hackers. The raids
resulted in the near bankruptcy of one game company never alleged to have had
anything to do with the hackers, when the government seized its computers and
refused to give them back. The case against another alleged participant
collapsed in court when his attorney showed the "proprietary" and supposedly
hacked information he printed in an electronic newsletter was actually
available via an 800 number for about $13 - from the phone company from which
that data was taken.
FYI:
====
You can find discussions about IRC in the `alt.irc' newsgroup. "A
Discussion on Computer Network Conferencing", by Darren Reed (May, 1992),
provides a theoretical background on why conferencing systems such as IRC are
a Good Thing. It's available through ftp at `nic.ddn.mil' as file
`rfc/rfc1324.txt'.
For a good overview of the impact on the Internet of the Morris Worm, read
"Virus Highlights Need for Improved Internet Management", by the U.S. General
Accounting Office (June, 1989). You can get a copy via ftp from
`cert.sei.cmu.edu' in the `pub/virus-l/docs' directory. It's listed as
`gao_rpt'.
Clifford Stoll describes how the Internet works and how he tracked a group
of KGB-paid German hackers through it, in "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy
through the Maze of Computer Espionage", Doubleday (1989).
See also Bruce Sterling's essay (*Note Statement of Principle::).
*"F: When into a room I plunge, I
Sometimes find some VIOLET FUNGI.
Then I linger, darkly brooding
On the poison they're exuding.
H: If a 'GOBLIN (HOB) waylays you,
Slice him up before he slays you.
Nothing makes you look a slob
Like running from a HOB'LIN (GOB).
K: Cobalt's metal, hard and shining;
Cobol's wordy and confining;
KOBOLDS topple when you strike them;
Don't feel bad, it's hard to like them.
T: One big monster, he called TROLL.
He don't rock, and he don't roll;
Drink no wine, and smoke no stogies.
He just Love To Eat Them Roguies.
U: There's a U - a Unicorn!
Run right up and rub its horn.
Look at all those points you're losing!
UMBER HULKS are so confusing."*
-- The Roguelet's ABC
*********************
If you're a teacher, you've probably already begun to see the potential
the Net has for use in the class. Usenet, ftp and telnet have tremendous
educational potential, from keeping up with world events to arranging
international science experiments.
Because the Net now reaches so many countries and often stays online even
when the phones go down, you and your students can "tune in" to first-hand
accounts during international conflicts. Look at your system's list of
Usenet `soc.culture.*' groups to see if there is one about the country or
region you're interested in. Even in peacetime, these newsgroups can be
great places to find people from countries you might be studying.
The biggest problem may be getting accounts for your students, if you're
not lucky enough to live within the local calling area of a Free-Net system.
Many colleges and universities, however, are willing to discuss providing
accounts for secondary students at little or no cost. Several states,
including California and Texas, have Internet-linked networks for teachers
and students.
In addition, there are a number of resources on the Internet aimed
specifically at elementary and secondary students and teachers. You can use
these to set up science experiments with classes in another country, learn
how to use computers in the classroom or keep up with the latest advances in
teaching everything from physics to physical education.
Some of these resources are listed in the follwoing.
======
Begun on the Fidonet hobbyist network, K12Net is now also carried on many
Usenet systems and provides a host of interesting and valuable services.
These include international chat for students, foreign-language discussions
(for example, there are French and German-only conference where American
students can practice those languages with students from Quebec and German).
There are also conferences aimed at teachers of specific subjects, from
physical education to physics. The K12 network still has limited
distribution, so ask your system administrator if your system carries it.
========
If your system doesn't carry K12, but has access to telnet, you can reach
it through SpaceMet Forum, a bulletin-board system aimed at teachers and
students that is run by the physics and astronomy department at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The address is
`spacemet.phast.umass.edu'. When you connect, hit escape once. Like K12,
SpaceMet Forum began as a Fidonet system, but has since grown much larger.
Mort and Helen Sternheim, professors at the university, started SpaceMet as a
one-line bulletin-board system several years ago to help bolster
middle-school science education in nearby towns.
Today, there is a whole series of satellite SpaceMet BBSs in western
Massachusetts and SpaceMet itself is now linked to Fidonet and Internet.
In addition to the K12 conferences, SpaceMet carries numerous
educationally oriented conferences. It also has a large file library of
interest to educators and students, but be aware that getting files to your
site could be difficult and maybe even impossible. Unlike most other
Internet sites, Spacemet does not use an ftp interface. The Sternheims say
ZMODEM sometimes works over the network, but don't count on it.
=========
Kidsphere is a mailing list for elementary and secondary teachers, who use
it to arrange joint projects and discuss educational telecommunications. You
will find news of new software, lists of sites from which you can get
computer-graphics pictures from various NASA satellites and probes and other
news of interest to modem-using teachers.
To subscribe, send a request by e-mail to
you will start receiving messages within a couple of days. To contribute to
the discussion, send messages to
KIDS is a spin-off of KIDSPHERE just for students who want to contact
students. To subscribe, send a request to
above. To contribute, send messages to
==========
A mailing list for health educators. Send a request to
=========
PAPA is a mailing list about Hemingway and his work. To get on the list,
send a request to
==============
This system, run by NASA in Huntsville, Ala., provides all sorts of
reports and data about NASA, its history and its various missions, past and
present. Telnet `spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov' or 128.158.13.250.
When you connect, you'll be given an overview of the system and asked to
register. The system maintains a large file library of GIF-format space
graphics, but note that you can't download these through telnet. If you want
to, you have to dial the system directly, at (205) 895-0028. Many can be
obtained through ftp from `ames.arc.nasa.gov', however.
======
This is another BBS-like system, run by the Argonne National Laboratory.
It offers conferences for teachers and students, including one called "Ask a
Scientist." Telnet: `newton.dep.anl.gov'. Log in as: cocotext
You'll be asked to provide your name and address. When you get the main
menu, hit `4' for the various conferences. The "Ask a Scientist" category
lets you ask questions of scientists in fields from biology to earth science.
Other categories let you discuss teaching, sports and computer networks.
=====================
To get a list of ftp sites that carry astronomical images in the GIF
graphics format, use ftp to connect to `nic.funet.fi'. Switch to the
`/pub/astro/general' directory and get the file `astroftp.txt'. Among the
sites listed is `ames.arc.nasa.gov', which carries images taken by the
Voyager and Galileo probes, among other pictures.
=====================================
There are numerous Usenet newsgroups of potential interest to teachers and
students.
As you might expect, many are of a scientific bent. You can find these by
typing `l sci.' in rn or using `nngrep sci.' for nn. There are now close to
40, with subjects ranging from archaeology to economics (the "dismal
science," remember?) to astronomy to nanotechnology (the construction of
microscopically small machines).
One thing students will quickly learn from many of these groups: science
is not just dull, boring facts. Science is argument and standing your ground
and making your case. The Usenet `sci.*' groups encourage critical thinking.
Beyond science, social-studies and history classes can keep busy learning
about other countries, through the `soc.culture.*' newsgroups.
Most of these newsgroups originated as ways for expatriates of a given
country to keep in touch with their homeland and its culture. In times of
crisis, however, these groups often become places to disseminate information
from or into the country and to discuss what is happening. From Afghanistan
to Yugoslavia, close to 50 countries are now represented on Usenet.
To see which groups are available, use `l soc.culture.' in rn or `nngrep
soc.culture.' for nn.
Several "talk" newsgroups provide additional topical discussions, but
teachers should screen them first before recommending them to students. They
range from `talk.abortion', via `talk.politics. guns' to
`talk.politics.space', and `talk.environment'.
There are also a number of Bitnet discussion groups of potential interest
to students and teachers. *Note Mailing Lists:: for information on finding
and subscribing to Bitnet discussion groups. Some with an educational
orientation include:
biopi-l ksuvm.bitnet Secondary biology education
chemed-l uwf.bitnet Chemistry education
dts-l iubvm.bitnet The Dead Teacher's Society list
phys-l uwf.bitnet Discussions for physics teachers
physhare psuvm.bitnet Where physics teachers share resources
scimathl psuvm.bitnet Science and math education
FYI:
====
Carl Erickson
paper, entitled "USENET as a Teaching Tool", published in the Proceedings of
24th, ACM Conference on Science and Education (CSE-2/93-IN).
*"A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into
superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education."*
-- George Bernhard Shaw
*"Education is the process of casting false pearls before real swine."*
-- Irsin Edman
*"It is against the grain of modern education to teach children to program.
What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts,
devoting attention to detail, and learning to be self-critical?"*
-- Alan Perlis
*************************************
*The revolution is just beginning.*
New communications systems and digital technologies have already meant
dramatic changes in the way we live. Think of what is already routine that
would have been considered impossible just ten years ago. You can browse
through the holdings of your local library - or of libraries halfway around
the world - do your banking and see if your neighbor has gone bankrupt, all
through a computer and modem.
Imploding costs coupled with exploding power are bringing ever more
powerful computer and digital systems to ever growing numbers of people. The
Net, with its rapidly expanding collection of databases and other information
sources, is no longer limited to the industrialized nations of the West;
today the web extends into once remote areas from Siberia to Zimbabwe. The
cost of computers and modems used to plug into the Net, meanwhile, continue
to plummet, making them ever more affordable.
Cyberspace has become a vital part of millions of people's daily lives.
People form relationships online, they fall in love, they get married, all
because of initial contacts in cyberspace, that ephemeral "place" that
transcends national and state boundaries. Business deals are transacted
entirely in ASCII. Political and social movements begin online, coordinated
by people who could be thousands of miles apart.
*Yet this is only the beginning.*
We live in an age of communication, yet, the various media we use to talk
to one another remain largely separate systems. One day, however, your
telephone, TV, fax machine and personal computer will be replaced by a single
"information processor" linked to the worldwide Net by strands of optical
fiber.
Beyond databases and file libraries, power will be at your fingertips.
Linked to thousands, even millions of like-minded people, you'll be able to
participate in social and political movements across the country and around
the world.
How does this happen? In part, it will come about through new
technologies. High-definition television will require the development of
inexpensive computers that can process as much information as today's work
stations. Telephone and cable companies will compete to see who can bring
those fiber-optic cables into your home first. High- speed data networks,
such as the Internet, will be replaced by even more powerful systems.
Vice President ALBERT GORE, who successfully fought for a landmark funding
bill for a new high-speed national computer network in 1990, talks of
creating "information superhighways."
Right now, we are in the network equivalent of the early 1950s, just
before the creation of the Interstate highway system. Sure, there are plenty
of interesting things out there, but you have to meander along two-lane
roads, and have a good map, to get to them.
Creation of this new Net will also require a new communications paradigm:
the Net as information utility. The Net remains a somewhat complicated and
mysterious place. To get something out of the Net today, you have to spend a
fair amount of time with a Net veteran or a manual like this. You have to
learn such arcana as the vagaries of the Unix cd command.
Contrast this with the telephone, which now also provides access to large
amounts of information through push buttons, or a computer network such as
Prodigy, which one navigates through simple commands and mouse clicks.
Internet system administrators have begun to realize that not all people
want to learn the intricacies of Unix, and that that fact does not make them
bad people. Coming years will see the development of simpler interfaces that
will put the Net's power to use by millions of people, just as the number of
host systems offering public access to the Net will skyrocket.
Gophers and Wide-Area Information Servers have become two of the fastest
growing applications on the Net. They are relatively simple to use and yet
offer access to vast amounts of information. Mail programs and text editors
such as Pico and Pine promise much of the power of older programs such as
emacs at a fraction of the complexity.
Some software engineers are looking at taking this even further, by
creating graphical interfaces that will let somebody navigate the Internet
just by clicking on the screen with a mouse or by calling up an easy text
editor, sort of the way one can now navigate a Macintosh computer - or a
commercial online service such as Prodigy.
*Then there are the Internet services themselves.*
For every database now available through the Internet, there are probably
three or four that are not. Government agencies are only slowing beginning
to connect their storehouses of information to the Net. Several commercial
vendors, from database services to booksellers, have made their services
available through the Net.
Few people now use one of the Net's more interesting applications. A
standard known as MIME lets one send audio and graphics files in a message.
Imagine opening your e-mail one day to hear your granddaughter's first words,
or a "photo" of your friend's new house. Eventually, this standard could
allow for distribution of even small video displays over the Net.
All of this will require vast new amounts of Net power, to handle both the
millions of new people who will jump onto the Net and the new applications
they want. Replicating a moving image on a computer screen alone takes a
phenomenal amount of computer bits, and computing power to arrange them.
The legislation pushed by Gore in 1991 will eventually replace the
existing Internet in the U.S. with the National Research and Education
Network.
At the center of NREN will be a "backbone" that, in one second, will be
able to move as much as 3 billion bits of information from coast to coast -
the equivalent of shipping the contents of a large encyclopedia from New York
to Los Angeles electronically. That seems like a silly thing to do. But that
kind of speed allows for widespread distribution of complex files, such as
video loops, without bogging down the entire Net. Its capacity will let
millions more people onto the Net.
As these "superhighways" grow, so will the "on ramps," for a high- speed
road does you little good if you can't get to it. The costs of modems seem
to fall as fast as those of computers. High-speed modems (9600 baud and up)
are becoming increasingly affordable. At 9600 baud, you can download a
satellite weather image of North America in less than two minutes, a file
that, with a slower modem could take up to 20 minutes to download.
Eventually, homes could be connected directly to a national digital network.
Most long-distance phone traffic is already carried in digital form, through
high-volume optical fibers. Phone companies are ever so slowly working to
extend these fibers the "final mile" to the home. The Electronic Frontier
Foundation is working to ensure these links are affordable.
Beyond the technical questions are increasingly thorny social, political
and economic issues. Who is to have access to these services, and at what
cost? If we live in an information age, are we laying the seeds for a new
information under class, unable to compete with those fortunate enough to
have the money and skills needed to manipulate new communications channels?
Who, in fact, decides who has access to what? As more companies realize the
potential profits to be made in the new information infrastructure, what
happens to such systems as Usenet, possibly the world's first successful
anarchistic system, where everybody can say whatever they want?
What are the laws of the electronic frontier? When national and state
boundaries lose their meaning in cyberspace, the question might even be: WHO
is the law? What if a practice that is legal in one country is "committed"
in another country where it is illegal, over a computer network that crosses
through a third country? Who goes after computer crackers?
*What role will you play in the revolution?*
*"The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it."*
-- Abbie Hoffman
*"The only act of revolution left
in a collective world, is thinking for yourself."*
-- Bob Geldof, "Is that it?"
*"And all else is silence."*
-- Shakespeare, "Hamlet"
*************************************************************
By *Howard Rheingold* (1)
Editor, "The Whole Earth Review", 27 Gate Five Road, Sausalito, CA 94965.
NOTE: In 1988, "Whole Earth Review" published my article, "Virtual
Communities." Four years later, I reread it and realized that I had
learned a few things, and that the world I was observing had changed.
So I rewrote it. The original version is available on the WELL as
`/uh/72/hlr/virtual_communities88'.
Portions of this will appear in "Globalizing Networks: Computers and
International Communication", edited by *Linda Harasim* and *Jan Walls*
for MIT press. Portions of this will appear in "Virtual Communities," by
Howard Rheingold, Addison-Wesley. Portions of this may find their way
into Whole Earth Review.
This is a world-readable file, and I think these are important issues;
encourage distribution, but I do ask for fair use: Don't remove my name
from my words when you quote or reproduce them, don't change them, and
don't impair my ability to make a living with them.
I'm a writer, so I spend a lot of time alone in a room with my words and
my thoughts. On occasion, I venture outside to interview people or to find
information. After work, I reenter the human community, via my family, my
neighborhood, my circle of acquaintances. But that regime left me feeling
isolated and lonely during the working day, with few opportunities to expand
my circle of friends. For the past seven years, however, I have participated
in a wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, professionally rewarding,
sometimes painful, and often intensely emotional ongoing interchange with
dozens of new friends, hundreds of colleagues, thousands of acquaintances.
And I still spend many of my days in a room, physically isolated. My mind,
however, is linked with a worldwide collection of like-minded (and not so
like-minded) souls: My virtual community.
Virtual communities emerged from a surprising intersection of humanity and
technology. When the ubiquity of the world telecommunications network is
combined with the information-structuring and storing capabilities of
computers, a new communication medium becomes possible. As we've learned from
the history of the telephone, radio, television, people can adopt new
communication media and redesign their way of life with surprising rapidity.
Computers, modems, and communication networks furnish the technological
infrastructure of computer-mediated communication (CMC); cyberspace is the
conceptual space where words and human relationships, data and wealth and
power are manifested by people using CMC technology; virtual communities are
cultural aggregations that emerge when enough people bump into each other
often enough in cyberspace.
A virtual community as they exist today is a group of people who may or
may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas
through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks. In
cyberspace, we chat and argue, engage in intellectual intercourse, perform
acts of commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans,
brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play
games and metagames, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk.
We do everything people do when people get together, but we do it with words
on computer screens, leaving our bodies behind. Millions of us have already
built communities where our identities commingle and interact electronically,
independent of local time or location. The way a few of us live now might be
the way a larger population will live, decades hence.
The pioneers are still out there exploring the frontier, the borders of
the domain have yet to be determined, or even the shape of it, or the best
way to find one's way in it. But people are using the technology of
computer-mediated communications CMC technology to do things with each other
that weren't possible before. Human behavior in cyberspace, as we can observe
it and participate in it today, is going to be a crucially important factor.
The ways in which people use CMC always will be rooted in human needs, not
hardware or software.
If the use of virtual communities turns out to answer a deep and
compelling need in people, and not just snag onto a human foible like pinball
or pac-man, today's small online enclaves may grow into much larger networks
over the next twenty years. The potential for social change is a side-effect
of the trajectory of telecommunications and computer industries, as it can be
forecast for the next ten years. This odd social revolution - communities of
people who may never or rarely meet face to face - might piggyback on the
technologies that the biggest telecommunication companies already are
planning to install over the next ten years.
It is possible that the hardware and software of a new global
telecommunications infrastructure, orders of magnitude more powerful than
today's state of the art, now moving from the laboratories to the market,
will expand the reach of this spaceless place throughout the 1990s to a much
wider population than today's hackers, technologists, scholars, students, and
enthusiasts. The age of the online pioneers will end soon, and the cyberspace
settlers will come en-masse. Telecommuters who might have thought they were
just working from home and avoiding one day of gridlock on the freeway will
find themselves drawn into a whole new society. Students and scientists are
already there, artists have made significant inroads, librarians and
educators have their own pioneers as well, and political activists of all
stripes have just begun to discover the power of plugging a computer into a
telephone. When today's millions become tens and hundreds of millions,
perhaps billions, what kind of place, and what kind of model for human