From douglas Wed Apr 1 17:08:29 1998 From: douglas (Doug Schuler) Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 17:08:29 -0800 (PST) Subject: From AFCN Message-ID: <199804020108.RAA14569@scn.org> Here is the press release on the official launching of the Association For Community Networking. Feel free to distribute it to anybody who might be interested. -- doug Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 10:04:06 -0500 From: Amy Borgstrom To: "'afcn-advisory at lists.colorado.edu'" FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 26, 1998 Contacts: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/afcn/ Amy Borgstrom Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet) 94 N. Columbus Rd. Athens, OH 45701 (740) 592-3854 amyb at seorf.ohiou.edu Steve Cisler cisler at pobox.com Steve Snow shsnow at charweb.org The Association For Community Networking opens its virtual doors! ATHENS, Ohio -- The Association For Community Networking is a national non-profit membership organization dedicated to improving the visibility, viability, and vitality of Community Networking. AFCN links and serves the more than one hundred and fifty community networks around the country. AFCN also builds public awareness, identifies best practices, encourages research, and develops products and services. Community networks are locally-based, locally-driven information and communication systems which are owned and operated by local citizens, government officials, social services, schools, libraries, community-based organizations, and others; enable community members to use the Internet to solve problems and create opportunities; usually include a World Wide Web page or other online presence where community members can publish community information, share interests and communicate with one another; and often provide public access, training, and support for users. "There is tremendous power in this country at the community level--to create, to support, to build a healthier nation," said Amy Borgstrom, President of AFCN and Executive Director of the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks in Athens, Ohio. "AFCN's role will be to help communities make use of the great technical advances available to them, in both rural and urban settings. Community networks help people become better informed, better educated, more prosperous, and more connected to others here and around the world." AFCN builds upon the 25-year history of community networks that began with the Community Memory Project in Berkeley in the 1970s, and became popularized with the Freenets like the Cleveland Freenet in the 1980s. Community networks have quickly become a key means of civil interaction in many places around the world in the 1990s. Existing community networks, if taken as a whole, have one of the largest electronic user bases in the nation. Take a snapshot of community networking today and you might see: homeless people checking out job listings at a public access site from a shelter in North Carolina; high school students being trained to be computer consultants in rural Ohio; senior citizens using e-mail in Boulder; or citizens "meeting the candidates" in an electronic conference in inner-city St. Paul. AFCN provides members with An electronic mailing list for members to share experiences and learn from one another. A bi-monthly newsletter examining issues and providing community networking tips and insights. A growing, resource-rich World Wide Web site at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/afcn/. Opportunities for face-to-face interaction, learning, and policy development--the Association is planning a roundtable in the spring in Washington D.C., and a members' gathering in the fall. "Community networks can have significant impact on peoples' lives," according to Madeline Gonzalez, Executive Director of AFCN. "AFCN is helping communities create their own networks, as well as working with businesses and existing networks to develop new products and services in the public interest. As we move toward the 21st century, this is a movement whose time has come." People interested in joining this exciting effort are invited to become members. This will make it possible for AFCN to continue developing quality products and services for community networkers everywhere. For more information and a membership form, check out the AFCN website, or call Amy Borgstrom at (740) 592-3854. The Association for Community Networking is incorporated in the state of Colorado, and is administered by a virtual Board of community networking professionals: Amy Borgstrom of the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks in Athens, Ohio; Steve Cisler formerly of Apple Computer; Richard Civille of the Center for Civic Networking in Washington, DC; Joan Durrance of the University of Michigan School of Information; Madeline Gonzalez, a founder of the Boulder Community Network; and Steve Snow of Charlotte's Web in Charlotte, North Carolina. More than a third of the existing community networks have had a hand in creating AFCN, which has been under development for the last two years. Start-up activities were supported by Apple Computer, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the University of Michigan, the Morino Institute, and a group of 50 founding contributors. Amy Borgstrom Appalachian Center for Economic Networks 94 Columbus Road Athens, Ohio 45701 (614) 592-3854 voice (614) 593-5451 fax amyb at seorf.ohiou.edu http://www.seorf.ohiou.edu/~xx001 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From aki at halcyon.com Thu Apr 2 08:50:07 1998 From: aki at halcyon.com (Aki Namioka) Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 08:50:07 -0800 (PST) Subject: Principles for the Internet Era - Special Meeting Message-ID: Special CPSR/Seattle Chapter Meeting INTERNET GOVERNANCE One Planet, One Net Principles for the Internet Era Thursday, April 16, 7:00 - 9:00 pm Karen Coyle CPSR Western Regional Director University Friends Meeting - 4001 9th NE Just North of the University Bridge In the U-District As the Internet grows in importance and the number of participants continues to rapidly increase, the ability to "govern" the Internet has become a daunting task. This year CPSR's program focus is exploring the issues of what Internet Governance means, who should do it, what is the current structure. Please join us in this special presentation by Karen Coyle, Western Regional Director of CPSR, to discuss a series of principles that CPSR has published. These principles are what we believe is the foundation for examining the issues of Internet Governance. This meeting is part of a series of meetings that CPSR is conducting throughout the United States this year Contact karyn at cpsr.org for more info. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From joperry at scn.org Sat Apr 4 22:00:48 1998 From: joperry at scn.org (John O. Perry) Date: Sat, 4 Apr 1998 22:00:48 -0800 (PST) Subject: Access and use Message-ID: <199804050600.WAA21930@scn.org> Am I the only user who has found that access (via ICOMM) is much easier of late (no more No Answers, or running through 12 tries without success) and that when on line, there are no more abrupt disconnects or intolerable slow scrolls? I want to thank whoever is responsible-- and get others with similar improved service to support -- snap, snap, snap-- the persons responsible... FAith is restored in volunteer run groups like SCN. Support, support.... ATB JOP -- John Oliver Perry and/or Sue Perry JOP: Prof. Engl., ret.; writer, Indophile, neighborhood council, stainedglass fabricator SUE: Painter, Francophile, 3dW bookclub 1606 East Columbia St., Seattle, WA 98122-4635 PH:206-329-3327 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From jj at scn.org Mon Apr 6 00:54:20 1998 From: jj at scn.org (John Johnson) Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 00:54:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Access and use In-Reply-To: <199804050600.WAA21930@scn.org> Message-ID: On Sat, 4 Apr 1998, John O. Perry wrote: > Am I the only user who has found that access (via ICOMM) is much easier > of late (no more No Answers, or running through 12 tries without success) > and that when on line, there are no more abrupt disconnects or > intolerable slow scrolls? .... Or you just got lucky! (Smile!) Which is partly true. Unfortunately, things are not all fixed with the modems, and even as I write this we have two modems apparently hung. (Can't do a thing about them until the library opens.) And a week ago Monday we had a modem not answering, and we left it up for several hours to test it. Such is life. But we have made some progress. The pausing problem, for instance, was traced to five modems with a particular PROM version, and we moved them out of the main hunt-group to the IP lines, where we could keep a better eye on them. Then they started going into gibberish mode (and some of the IPs started complaining!). This (the gibberish) we found to be related to problems with error control and possibly compression. (From the news groups we learn that USRobotics has had some serious problems in their implmentation of the V.42 error corrrection protocol.) No thanks to USRobotics, though. There seem to be serious problems with both their Sportster modems and their support operations. So the Hardware/Software committee is considering options for replacing them. And when we reach a point where there seems not further benefit to testing these modems, we will try to arrange things to minimize the various problems. === JJ ================================================================= * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From karyn at accessone.com Thu Apr 9 20:01:51 1998 From: karyn at accessone.com (Karyn Quinlan) Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 20:01:51 -0700 Subject: Principles for the Internet Era - Thurs, April 16th Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19980409200151.031aecc0@accessone.com> ---> Please note: Our regular chapter meeting (3rd Wednesday) is cancelled this month so that we may host this special event. All welcome. See you there! -- KQ * * * * * Special CPSR/Seattle Chapter Meeting INTERNET GOVERNANCE One Planet, One Net Principles for the Internet Era Thursday, April 16, 7:00 - 9:00 pm Karen Coyle CPSR Western Regional Director University Friends Meeting - 4001 9th NE (just North of the University Bridge in the U-District) As the Internet grows in importance and the number of participants continues to rapidly increase, the ability to "govern" the Internet has become a daunting task. This year CPSR's program focus is exploring the issues of what Internet Governance means, who should do it, what is the current structure. Please join us in this special presentation by Karen Coyle, Western Regional Director of CPSR, to discuss a series of principles that CPSR has published. These principles are what we believe is the foundation for examining the issues of Internet Governance. This meeting is part of a series of meetings that CPSR is conducting throughout the United States this year Contact karyn at cpsr.org for more info. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From steve at accessone.com Thu Apr 9 10:33:17 1998 From: steve at accessone.com (Steve Hoffman) Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 09:33:17 -0800 Subject: Filtering Message-ID: <199804091632.JAA14560@accessone.com> In Rejecting Dismissal of Filtering Case, Judge Sets High Standard for Libraries Jeri Clausing NY Times 4/9/98 In the first major ruling on the use Internet filtering software in public libraries, a federal judge in Virginia has rejected efforts to dismiss a challenge to the use of such software in Loudoun County, Va. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a forceful 36-page opinion on Tuesday that the government had "misconstrued the nature of the Internet" and held that "the Library Board may not adopt and enforce content-based restrictions on access to protected Internet speech" unless it meets the highest level of constitutional scrutiny. The American Civil Liberties Union hailed the opinion as one of the strongest ever defenses of online free speech , and one it hopes will help slow the movement of legislation at the federal state, and local level to require filters on school and library computers. "We are thrilled that the judge in this case, a former librarian, recognized the Internet as the ultimate library resource," said Ann Beeson, an ACLU staff lawyer on the case who also was on the team that successfully fought the Communications Decency Act. Beeson said that although the case will still go to trial, the unequivocal language of the ruling gave the government a very high burden to meet in its defense of the blocking policy. "Blocking software is nothing more than CDA in a box," Beeson said. "With today's ruling, the court correctly applied the same level of First Amendment scrutiny that the Supreme Court used in rejecting the CDA." Ken Bass, a Washington, D.C., lawyer defending Loudoun County, agreed that the opinion set the "highest First Amendment hurdle for the Loudoun County Board to clear. But I think they are wrong in saying we can't clear it." Bass said the judge acknowledged that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, and he said that's what the Loudoun policy is about: not providing access to obscenity. "She acknowledges that," he said. "The nature of the Internet ... compels you to use filtering software to not deliver obscenity to the public library," said Bass, of the firm Venable, Baetjer, Howard & Civiletti. "You have to filter. If you don't filter obscenity will come through. The issue then becomes how do you design the filter. We are of the view that when she hears all the evidence and has a full trial on how filtering works, the volume of obscenity out there, she will be persuaded that this is the only practical way to do it." Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California Los Angeles who specializes in free speech and cyber issues, emphasized that the opinion is "an early battle" in a contentious issue. "My sense is that one district judge does not a legal trend make or even a legal doctrine," Volokh said. "I though this was a good opinion. ... It certainly came out in favor of the ACLU, although it does gloss over the fact that there are resource issues." In refusing to dismiss the case, Brinkema said library boards are not immune from such suits, a point Bass indicated would be appealed. But for now, the ACLU is relishing in what it considers an initial victory from Brinkema. Cassidy Seghal, a lawyer in the ACLU's Washington, D.C., office, said the opinion should provide a tremendous boost to its Congressional lobbying effort against a bill by Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, that would require all libraries that receive federal money to hook up to the Internet to have filtering software on at least one computer for minors. "The bottom line is that this decision is really what we were waiting for in terms of going back to the Senate and fighting Senator McCain on his bill," Seghal said. McCain's bill originally called for filters on all computers at schools also getting federal money for Internet hookups, but that was amended to only require that schools adopt some sort of policy to protect children from adult content. Such policies could include simple supervision. McCain's office declined to comment on the Loudoun ruling or on what effect it might have on the movement of his bill, tentatively scheduled for a May vote, saying it had not seen the Brinkema ruling. A number of states and localities are also considering filtering policies for school and public libraries. "Every member of every library board considering an Internet-blocking policy ought to read the judge's ruling," said Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. "It will remind them of why we have libraries and why an unfettered Internet serves the fundamental purpose of libraries better than any invention since the printing press." I refusing to dismiss the case, Brinkema did said library boards are not immune from such suits -- a point Bass indicated would be appealed -- but she did release board members from personal liability. Indeed, Bass said there were a number of cases around the country in which libraries have been deterred from carrying out policies similar to Loudoun's because of the threat of costly litigation. Calling public libraries places of "freewheeling and independent inquiry," Judge Brinkema quoted extensively from Reno v. ACLU, the landmark Supreme Court decision on Internet free speech that stuck down the Communications Decency Act, noting that the Court "analogized the Internet to a 'vast library including millions of readily available and indexed publications,' the content of which 'is as diverse as human thought.'" The court also rejected the notion that the use of blocking software can be considered analogous to a librarian's selecting certain materials, noting that Internet publications "exist only in 'cyberspace,'" and do not "take up shelf space or require physical maintenance of any kind." Nor do such publications cost money, the judge said, noting that in fact, "it costs a library more to restrict the content of its collection by means of blocking software than it does for the library to offer unrestricted access to all Internet publications." The lawsuit challenging the Internet policy was filed in December by Mainstream Loudoun and a number of residents of Loudoun County. People For the American Way Foundation and the Washington, D.C., law firm of Hogan and Hartson L.L.P. are representing the plaintiff as co-counsel. Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From steve at accessone.com Sat Apr 11 16:51:47 1998 From: steve at accessone.com (Steve Hoffman) Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 15:51:47 -0800 Subject: Universal email access Message-ID: <199804112250.PAA16966@accessone.com> Studies Explore Possibilities of E-mail for Everyone Rebecca Fairley Raney NY Times 4/11/98 In Minneapolis, Steven Clift makes a living wrangling 700 e-mail messages a day. He subscribes to more than 100 discussion groups with names like TownTalk and CyberTelecom, monitoring the chatter about the possibilities of virtual communities. He sends the striking ideas he sees to the John & Mary R. Markle Foundation in New York, a philanthropic organization that is investing millions to explore the possibilities of a society that provides e-mail for everyone. Clift is one of dozens of people the foundation has put to work on the idea. In Santa Monica, C. Richard Neu and a staff of six at the Rand Corp. sort through surveys of government employees, assessing their impressions of the obstacles and benefits to providing Medicare and unemployment insurance information to people by e-mail. Down the California coast, in San Diego, 50 executives from companies including IBM and Starbucks gathered this week to ponder big-picture questions about the impact of technology on society. Is the Internet hype? Should computer literacy become part of the school curriculum? Will innovators pose a risk to corporate America by delivering their products on the Web? Major studies funded by the foundation started in 1994, and several studies are still in progress. Researchers at Rand, Bellcore, Carnegie Mellon University and the Brookings Institution have explored the formation of friendships in cyberspace, community development online and barriers to Internet use. So far, more than $2 million has gone into the project. The objective is to create a national dialogue about universal e-mail access, an idea predicated by findings of a Rand study that said universal access will not happen without social intervention. "The goal is not to predict what will happen, but to encourage uses to enhance a democratic society," said Zoe Baird, president of the Markle Foundation. "Why be passive? We're hoping to have people thoughtfully inspire uses." The research and the roundtables are geared to build that inspiration. One of the early Rand studies showed a gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in information society, and that the disparities persisted despite the falling price of computers. The thinking behind Markle's initiative goes that if the government and corporate sectors provide better services online, the gap between "haves" and "have-nots" will be more likely to close. "They're trying to prevent a society with an underclass," said Catherine Gay, a principal in the International Advisory Group in New York, a publishing company that is coordinating roundtables and publicity for the foundation's universal e-mail project. Studies on the issue, funded by Markle, will continue to appear in the next few months. Meanwhile, the foundation is sponsoring events to keep people thinking. In the most recent event, the corporate leaders forum in San Diego, the goal was to touch influential people with ideas. The stage was set with a hypothetical case study to work out how a traditional company, a chain of record stores, should respond to a new company that sells music online, and the discussion expanded to consider how people would work, shop and live in a wired society. "The idea is to inoculate these people with social venture capital," said Jonathan I. Zemmol, a principal in the International Advisory Group. The hope was that these 50 people would talk to 50 more people, and that the word would spread. The participants came from traditional industries, like the steel industry, and from Internet start-ups. Many were intrigued by the notion that online communities can drive purchases. In other words, get people talking about a product online, and more people will buy. For Shabbir Safdar, a longtime Internet advocate who is now a principal in Mindshare Internet Campaigns in Washington, D.C., seeing leaders of traditional industries considering online communities was cathartic. "All it does for me is validate the medium," he said. The Markle project is encouraging government leaders to consider online communities as well. Neu, a senior economist at Rand, is investigating what it would take for agencies that administer Medicare and California unemployment benefits to communicate with people online. Medicare alone, he said, sends more than 500 million notification letters to people a year. This study started after earlier findings in 1995 by Rand that touted universal e-mail's potential benefits to society -- that e-mail "might therefore lead to new social and political linkages within U.S. society, reduce the feelings of alienation that many individuals in the United States feel and give them a new sense of 'community,' revitalize the involvement of the common citizen in the political process, etc., and in general strengthen the cohesion of U.S. society," according to the study. "That became kind of a best-seller," Neu said of the study. "The reaction was, well, cool, but where do we go from here?" One way, he said, is to get government agencies to offer essential services by e-mail. "We say, 'Hi. We're from Rand,'" Neu said. "'We want to find out if you can use e-mail.' When they gasp, we say, 'Why did they gasp?'" The value of the study, he said, is to get the issues on the table. The biggest barrier he has found so far is the agencies' lack of ability to conduct secure online transactions on a large scale. Ultimately, he argues, if several large government agencies, such as Social Security and the Internal Revenue Service, need to conduct secure online transactions, their business will be enough to drive the market to create a way to do secure transactions on a large scale -- a development that will enhance all types of e-mail use. As the foundation's efforts to inspire corporate and government leaders continue, Clift is keeping an eye on the online communities themselves. His experience in the area started several years ago as the creator of a discussion group on Minnesota politics, and now he spends half his day, every day, taking in the talk from listservs around the world for the foundation. He said the value of listening to people on the Internet is immense; the people who practice the craft of communicating online provide great expertise. "Tapping what the Net is having to say for a foundation-supported effort is very unique," Clift said. "Often, the people in the audience know a lot." Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From douglas Sun Apr 12 15:06:11 1998 From: douglas (Doug Schuler) Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 15:06:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Universal email access Message-ID: <199804122206.PAA06537@scn.org> Steve sent out a good article from the NY Times on the idea of Universal E-mail. I wanted to mention that the Seattle Community Network was very prominent in the original RAND report. Also when the results were presented at the original press conference the SCN home page was displayed prominently! -- Doug * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From douglas Sun Apr 12 15:10:08 1998 From: douglas (Doug Schuler) Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 15:10:08 -0700 (PDT) Subject: "BUILDING COMMUNITY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS" Message-ID: <199804122210.PAA07687@scn.org> This may be of interest to people out there. If somebody does "attend" they might be able to make some reports back here? I think they may be able to waive some fees but I'm not sure on that. -- Doug From: Seth Itzkan To: "'douglas at scn.org'" Subject: Building Community for Future Generations - Announcement Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 17:00:35 -0400 BUILDING COMMUNITY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS An Online Collaboration April 15 to May 14, 1998 Hosted in cyberspace by The University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) Program in Studies of the Future and Planet-TECH Associates in conjunction with the annual UHCL professional (face-to-face) futures forum The Evolving Faces of Future Communities April 23-25, 1998 Houston, Texas http://www.planet-tech.com/futuresforum http://www.cl.uh.edu/futureweb/conference.html THEMES: Online Community Ecological Restoration Future Democracy Alternative Education Cyber-Districts Urban Empowerment Strategic Planning New Economics Strategic Partnering Resource Development KEYNOTE SESSIONS Rick Smyre President, Center for Communities of the Future Hosting Forum on: Building Capacities for Community Transformation - a new model to help local communities prepare for the 21st century Andrew Cohill Director, Blacksburg Electronic Village and Initial Director, New Democracy Center. Hosting Forum on: Designing 21st Century Democracy - New Avenues for Citizen Participation in an Electronic Republic John Michitson City Counselor, Haverhill, MA, Director Footwear-to-Software task force Hosting Forum on: Haverhill Online Community and Cyber-District - Case Study in Municipal Online Community Building and Downtown Economic Revitalization WHAT IS IT? Building Community for Future Generations is an online collaboration of community activists, futurists, elected officials, scholars, teachers, high school age students, and others - working to distill the best practices and compelling visions for long term healthy community building. The deliberations will be inclusive of the significant changes occurring in our schools, our cities, our environment, our health care systems, our economy, and our avenues for democratic participation. Knowledge of today's far reaching trends will inform and influence the deliberations by providing a framework for issues identification and problem solving. Three principle objectives of the online collaboration are: 1. Provide facilitated, focused forums hosted by subject matter experts 2. Stimulate strategic partnering among participants, and 3. Develop a resources database to be downloaded and freely shared. WHY SHOULD I PARTICIPATE? Is this conference for me? What will I get out of it? Good questions! You should participate in this conference if you are interested in the trends effecting the future of your community, from technology to the environment to health care to education, and you want to help yourself and your community be adequately prepared and networked for leadership in the years ahead. If, for example, you are interested in projects like municipal online democracy, urban ecological restoration and international educational networking, then this conference is for you. You should attend this conference if you are a community planner, elected official, scholar, educator, business person, environmentalist, or any other stakeholder in your community's future. What you get out of it is an opportunity to help inform and be informed by the leading thinkers and doers in community development and futures planning. You get exposure to the projects, issues, and people that are making a difference in the world. You also get what you put in, because a community resource database will be created by the participants and made available for download. HOW DO THE ONLINE AND FACE-TO-FACE CONFERENCES RELATE? Building Community for Future Generations is being hosted by the Studies of the Future Program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in conjunction with their annual face-to-face professional futures forum being held this year, in Houston, Texas, April 23-25. The Houston professional face-to-face futures forum is titled The Evolving Faces of Future Communities and will bring together the world's leading futurists and community planners for 3 days of panel discussions, workshops, and open space sessions. All registrants of the face-to-face conference in Houston are also registered for the online collaboration and many of the invited face-to-face speakers will also host or be actively engaged in the online sessions. The online conference is both an opportunity to augment the face-to-face conference as well as an opportunity for non-face-to-face participants to take part in and learn from the Houston event. Additionally, the online collaboration has many unique sessions, not included in the Houston conference, and will be a complete conference in and of itself. The coordination between the two face-to-face and online conferences in a unique creation in conferencing and collaboration. WHAT IS THE FORMAT? The online conference will work with web-based threaded discussion groups. There will be hosted discussion groups with subject matter experts and open ones where participants can create topics of their own interest. All threaded discussion groups will have email lists associated with them which will distribute all postings to the threaded discussion groups so you can keep abreast without having to read via the web. These lists are offered as an convenience to support the distribution of threaded discussion group messages. You will not be able to post to the email lists. Additionally, the conference will support user profiles and a community generated resource database. All of these will be searchable. You will also be able to download the community generated resource database at the closure of the conference. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? WHERE DO THE PROCEEDS GO? The online conference costs $25. This gives you a month of forums hosted and joined by representatives of many of the leading projects in community development and futures planning, including Andrew Cohill, director of the Blacksburg Virginia Electronic Village Project , Rick Smyre, president of Communities of the Future, John Michitson, director of the Haverhill, Massachusetts Cyber-District Project, and others. All proceeds go to the University of Houston-Clear Lake. ONLINE FORUM HOSTS Rick Smyre President, Center for Communities of the Future Hosting Forum on: Building Capacities for Community Transformation - a new model to help local communities prepare for the 21st century Andrew Cohill Director, Blacksburg Electronic Village and Initial Director, New Democracy Center. Hosting Forum on: Designing 21st Century Democracy - New Avenues for Citizen Participation in an Electronic Republic John Michitson City Counselor, Haverhill, MA, Director Footwear-to-Software task force Hosting Forum on: Haverhill Online Community and Cyber-District - Case Study in Municipal Online Community Building and Downtown Economic Revitalization Jim Laurie Systems Biologist. Speaking on: Why 'Titanic' is a Movie About the Future - Coming to terms with the Defining Principles for Sustainability. Albert Willis Urban Technology Empowerment Evangelist. Steering Committee Member, Boston Collaborative for Community Technology. Hosting Forum on: Overcoming the Barriers to Effective Use of Computer Technology in Urban Areas Barry Kort Educational Technology Scientist and Online Community Innovator. Founder and Director of the Musenet K-12 Project. Hosting Forum on: The Orenda Project - Community Soul on the Right Path. Defining the life-affirming applications of technology. Lisa Jobson Program Director, International Education and Research Network (I*EARN). Hosting with I*EARN students, forum on: Ambassadors for the Future - Young People Using Telecommunications to Build Community Around the World INVITED ONLINE GUESTS Peter Bishop Director, Masters Program in Studies of the Future, University of Houston-Clear Lake, Clear Lake, Texas. Cole Jackson Administrator, Strategic Planning Educational Improvement Services, Orange County Public Schools and Advisor, Images of the Future Project, Orange County Futures Center. Laurence Doxsey Coordinator, Sustainable Communities Initiative, Austin, Texas. Ken Jones Executive director, Green Mountain Institute for Environmental Democracy. SPONSORS W.K. Kellogg Foundation Mitchell Energy World Future Society World Future Studies Federation Compaq Computer Corporation OrbitWorld Network, Inc. Bridgemedia Communications Group Planet-TECH Associates CONTACT INFORMATION Online Collaboration Seth J. Itzkan sitzkan at planet-tech.com (978) 456-2702 http://www.planet-tech.com/futuresforum Face-to-Face Conference Christian Crews CRCrews at aol.com (281) 283-3316 http://www.cl.uh.edu/futureweb/conference.html -- See you online! Seth J. Itzkan Internet & Media Development 508-467-4363: DTN 297-4363 seth.itzkan at digital.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From karyn at accessone.com Thu Apr 16 02:39:27 1998 From: karyn at accessone.com (Karyn Quinlan) Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 02:39:27 -0700 Subject: Principles for the Internet Era - Thurs., April 16th Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19980416023927.031b5f6c@accessone.com> Reminder... There is no CPSR-Seattle chapter meeting tonight (Wednesday, April 15). Please join us tomorrow night, Thursday, April 16 (see below). Everyone welcome. ************************************ Special CPSR/Seattle Chapter Meeting INTERNET GOVERNANCE One Planet, One Net Principles for the Internet Era Thursday, April 16, 7:00 - 9:00 pm Karen Coyle CPSR Western Regional Director University Friends Meeting - 4001 9th NE Just North of the University Bridge In the U-District As the Internet grows in importance and the number of participants continues to rapidly increase, the ability to "govern" the Internet has become a daunting task. This year CPSR's program focus is exploring the issues of what Internet Governance means, who should do it, what is the current structure. Please join us in this special presentation by Karen Coyle, Western Regional Director of CPSR, to discuss a series of principles that CPSR has published. These principles are what we believe is the foundation for examining the issues of Internet Governance. This meeting is part of a series of meetings that CPSR is conducting throughout the United States this year Contact karyn at cpsr.org for more info. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From steve at accessone.com Wed Apr 15 23:51:10 1998 From: steve at accessone.com (Steve Hoffman) Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 22:51:10 -0800 Subject: The cybercafe Message-ID: <199804160550.WAA19256@accessone.com> The Ballad Of the Cybercafe Mixing java and Java seemed like a good idea at one time, but it faded quickly. In city after city, cybercafes have quietly closed or turned into something else. Michel Marriott NY Times 4/16/98 Hunched over a computer, Mike Rivera pecked at its keyboard, keeping up his end of a conversation in a chat room. "Hey, I think I got a lesbian on here," he said in a stage whisper. Rivera, who is 19, does not have a computer at home, he said, so he was trading messages with an unseen stranger on a computer at a cybercafe, which sells computer access, light food and coffee. But Rivera was the only person seated at the neat row of six shiny computers on a recent afternoon at XS New York, a cybercafe and video game arcade in midtown Manhattan. Worse, Rivera, who works behind the pizza counter at XS, was not even a paying customer. "Someone left it on so I started messing with it," he said before finally returning to the pizza counter. The deserted computers at XS New York are not unusual. In city after city, cybercafes have quietly closed or turned into something else. And many of the ones that are still in business are attracting fewer and fewer visitors -- perhaps surprising, given the ballyhoo when cybercafes became popular in the mid-1990's. In a way, the decline of the cybercafe is an indicator of the increasing strength of America's embrace of the computer and the Internet. As people who sampled the World Wide Web in cafes found themselves seduced by it, and as more computers became affordable, many got their own computers and speedy home connections. Along the way, the cybercafes started drying up. The notion of a cybercafe -- a place for Net surfers to socialize on a tide of gourmet coffee -- is at odds with how most people want to use computers, even in their leisure time. Those who Web surf, read e-mail, write or program or do just about anything else on a computer often do so in solitude. Paying $7 to $14 an hour for a seat in a cafe to work or play on a computer is not necessarily logical. "Those two ideas don't mesh well," said Pearl Mitchell, an acting assistant treasurer for a Wall Street bank and trust company and a part-time model. Mitchell, 21, who was recently in a New York cybercafe shopping on the Internet for her first computer, said that once she bought her dream desktop machine, she would sharply cut back on her visits to cybercafes. She has been going three to five times a week to check her e-mail and browse her favorite sites, she said. It is precisely that sort of change in computing habits, say many associated with cybercafes in the United States, that have these Internet watering holes dying off like dinosaurs after that really big meteor crash. The IDT Megabite Cafe, for example, which opened two years ago in the shadow of some of Manhattan's biggest computer shops, closed in February. Its owner, Gaddy Haymov, reopened the cafe as a kosher pizza and sushi shop -- without the computers -- called the Original Boychicks. The @Cafe in Greenwich Village, once very popular, stands empty and boarded up. Weathered fliers cling to its bricks, reminding passers-by of the computer cruising that could be had inside not so long ago. Cybercafes have recently closed in cities as different as Washington and Louisville, Ky. Even in San Francisco, ground zero for the current explosion in Internet development and the holy land for worshipers of all things computer, the cybercafe scene is struggling to survive. "It is on the decline in terms of the numbers of people using them," said Craig Phillips, a documentary filmmaker who last year completed a short film about cybercafe culture in San Francisco. "It reached a peak out here before I was doing this film." Phillips, a 29-year-old administrative assistant for the California Humanities Council, said he had gone from visiting cybercafes in the San Francisco Bay area frequently to visiting them only occasionally. "For being places that provided a way to socialize, to meet a bunch of people, that's not happening as much these days," he said. In fact, he said, while making his 25-minute documentary, "Connected," he discovered that cybercafes, particularly one called the Horseshoe in the Haight-Ashbury section of the city, had severely scaled back computer services. Some computer cafes have become a haven for young people simply looking for a place to hang out more than a place to go on line. "Some tourist would come in and then leave quickly," Phillips noted. But in many other countries, especially in Central America, Africa and parts of Western Europe, where computer and Internet use has significantly lagged behind that in the United States, the cybercafe scene still sizzles. And in Hawaii, where the rates of computer and Internet use are among the highest in the United States, cybercafes generally remain popular. Some, like the three-year-old Internet Cafe in Honolulu, attract mostly students and tourists who didn't pack their computers along with their bathing suits and suntan lotion. "A lot of people are still coming in just for fun," said Tresy Lorch, manager of the cafe. "We try to keep up and offer people what they want." At the Internet Cafe, that means a friendly atmosphere with reasonable rates and superfast Internet connections. But part of the cybercafes' continuing allure in Hawaii, 5,000 miles from the mainland, is that they provide a way for people to come together and ease the sense of the island state's geographic isolation, some say. "Some people really feel that," said Olin Lagon, who works in Hawaii as a director of special projects for Worldpoint, a maker of language translation software. "Besides being so different and clean, Hawaii is the world's most isolated land mass. Here, cybercafes are like sophisticated nightclubs." or different reasons, cybercafes are also flourishing in foreign lands. In Mexico, for instance, Internet directories of cybercafes list 15 in the Mexico City area alone and some 50 nationwide. "We opened 18 months ago with four machines," said Israel Salgado Leyva, manager of the Cyberspace Cafe, a popular spot in Condesa, a neighborhood of leafy parks and Art Deco apartment buildings in Mexico City. "Now we have 14 Pentium computers." He added that he planned to install 10 more soon. In Milan, groups of people routinely visit cybercafes to jointly cruise Internet sites, said Paolo Bardicchia, an Italian-born business consultant who works in England. Any Net sites featuring the actor Leonardo DiCaprio have been especially popular for communal consumption since he starred in the billion-dollar film "Titanic." "It is much different there than here," said Bardicchia, who stopped in the XS cybercafe recently during a business trip to New York. "They are not places where people go alone." At the Virtual World Internet Cafe, which is in the Virtual World Electronics Store in Moscow, the scene is decidedly futuristic. Customers, whose ages ranged from 11 to 17 on a recent afternoon, occupy the cafe's nine computer workstations in a well-lighted space where the central decoration is an illuminated photo of two hands reaching across a globe. The Internet access here is free, and no purchases are necessary. But those wishing to surf the Net must get on the waiting list early because vacancies last only long enough for someone to leave a seat and another person to sit down. Yevgeny Alichinikov, a college freshman and self-proclaimed movie addict, was using his hour on the computer to surf the Complete Oscar site. "I can get everything on films on the Web," said Alichinikov. "My favorite actor is Rutger Hauer, and this way I can find out all the films that he's been in. Now I am looking for films with Glenn Close." In San Francisco, Jonathan Nelson, chief executive of Organic Online, an interactive design and communications company there, said cybercafes were a logical beginning for people in countries like Russia and China, where the Internet is still a novelty. "They are a first step, and then you move on," said Nelson, whose work takes him around the world. "That paradigm is happening all over the world. Cybercafes in South Africa are very interesting now." he key to keeping a cybercafe alive in the United States these days is to offer more to prospective customers than simply snappy computers and superfast T-1 lines to the Internet. At @Alan's, a cybercafe that opened two and a half years ago in Montclair, N.J., its eight computers, juice bar, coffee and light foods are still attracting customers, said its manager, Michael Townsend. As he spoke, a half-dozen preteen-age boys were at the computers, mostly playing games. Nonetheless, Townsend acknowledged, "it's tough to stay in business." To beef up revenues, he said, the cybercafe also offers, for a fee, of course, computer training and Web site development. The Internet Cafe, which opened three years ago in a former botanica in New York's East Village, has rooted its appeal in a decidedly low-tech décor and low-key atmosphere. The modest cybercafe is essentially a long, narrow room that has four computers, a color printer and scanner and is filled with comfortable tables and chairs and a small bar and television in the back. The cafe's stereo speakers are partial to vintage Sinatra and midtempo jazz. There is also coffee and an extensive beer list. "This is the kind of place that we hope people would enjoy even if there weren't any computers here," said Arthur Perley, a computer consultant and the cafe's owner. Saying that early cybercafes leaned on the "flash and glitz" of emerging technologies, Perley concluded: "Once the dazzle wears off, once the hype wears off, then the reality is sitting there. What is it? "Oh, it's a computer sitting in the corner, and you have a cafe." Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From jj at scn.org Thu Apr 16 09:49:32 1998 From: jj at scn.org (John Johnson) Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 09:49:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: "Test Program- 29329" Message-ID: I have been informed that the perpretrator of last night's spam (which was also relayed through SCN) has already been kicked off of his system. There are some additional measures that can be taken against many of these spammers. (E.g., last night's message possibly contravened certain Postal regulations.) Anyone that would like to take charge of some of that should speak up. === JJ ================================================================= * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From gtruzzi at scn.org Fri Apr 17 09:58:25 1998 From: gtruzzi at scn.org (Gianni Truzzi) Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 09:58:25 -0700 Subject: General Meeting -- Guest Speaker Message-ID: <35378A31.3698@scn.org> ========================== ANNOUNCEMENT ============================ Seattle Community Network Association General Meeting April 22, 1998 7:00 PM University Branch Library, 50th and Roosevelt Way NE SPECIAL GUEST: Pat Melgard, OWL This month, we will have the second in our (hopefully) regular series of Information Provider spotlights. Our special guest will be Pat Melgard, of the Older Women's League (OWL). She was featured in our premiere issue of SeaZine: http://www.scn.org/seazine/mar98/owl.html Take this opportunity to learn about a fine community organization -- what they are doing, who they are and how you can get involved. Also, a special thank-you to last month's special guest, Kent Kammerer of the Seattle Neighborhood Coalition. ===================================================================== * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From gtruzzi at scn.org Fri Apr 17 10:04:28 1998 From: gtruzzi at scn.org (Gianni Truzzi) Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 10:04:28 -0700 Subject: SCNA Cosponsorship -- Americans Discuss Social Security Message-ID: <35378B9C.5896@scn.org> ========================== ANNOUNCEMENT ============================ Seattle Community Network Association is proud to be a cosponsor of "Americans Discuss Social Security," a project funded by the Pew Charitable Trust. On May 2, ADSS will hold a citizen forum in Seattle, as part of a five-city effort. As part of this program, SCNA is hosting a special website with articles and links to information about Social Security. We will also host an online discussion group when this is ready. Take a look at the site, at http://www.scn.org/ip/adss If you are an SCN Information Provider who would like to contribute an article to this site, please notify Gianni Truzzi at gtruzzi at scn.org. ===================================================================== * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From joperry at scn.org Fri Apr 17 16:32:17 1998 From: joperry at scn.org (John O. Perry) Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 16:32:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Un-disabled accounts Message-ID: <199804172332.QAA02957@scn.org> Once more, heaps of praises to the "disabled account" fix-it team, including Andrew who phoned me within hours of my voice mail compliant. AS he predicted, the (systemic) problem was over by afternoon today. I don't know how many person-hours went into the effort, but obviously also the quality of the work was excellent. So thanx again, you folks.... ATB JOP -- John Oliver Perry and/or Sue Perry JOP: Prof. Engl., ret.; writer, Indophile, neighborhood council, stainedglass fabricator SUE: Painter, Francophile, 3dW bookclub 1606 East Columbia St., Seattle, WA 98122-4635 PH:206-329-3327 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From karyn at accessone.com Wed Apr 22 01:09:54 1998 From: karyn at accessone.com (Karyn Quinlan) Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 01:09:54 -0700 Subject: One Planet, One Net - CPSR-Seattle speaks! Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19980422010954.031d198c@accessone.com> [Posted to multiple lists. Apologies for any duplicates you may receive.] Did you miss the CPSR-Seattle Chapter meeting on Internet Governance (One Planet, One Net)? An archive of the ongoing national level discussion can be found at: http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/onenet-discuss/ Many thanks to Karen Coyle for an excellent presentation and to everyone who attended for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. Comments from Seattle chapter members are already making a difference! Join the listserv to participate. Visit http://www.scn.org/cpsr for info on our next chapter meeting. ************************************ > Special CPSR/Seattle Chapter Meeting > > INTERNET GOVERNANCE > > One Planet, One Net > Principles for the Internet Era > > Thursday, April 16, 7:00 - 9:00 pm > > Karen Coyle > CPSR Western Regional Director > > > University Friends Meeting - 4001 9th NE > Just North of the University Bridge > In the U-District > > >As the Internet grows in importance and the number of >participants continues to rapidly increase, the ability to >"govern" the Internet has become a daunting task. This year >CPSR's program focus is exploring the issues of what Internet >Governance means, who should do it, what is the current >structure. > >Please join us in this special presentation by Karen Coyle, >Western Regional Director of CPSR, to discuss a series >of principles that CPSR has published. These principles >are what we believe is the foundation for examining >the issues of Internet Governance. > >This meeting is part of a series of meetings that CPSR >is conducting throughout the United States this year > > > Contact karyn at cpsr.org for more info. > > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From nancyk at scn.org Thu Apr 23 22:52:40 1998 From: nancyk at scn.org (NancyK) Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 22:52:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Missed you at the General Meeting Message-ID: Hi SCN folks, Just a note to let you know that the SCN General Meeting for April was on the 22nd. Sometimes folks get confused when we have five wednesdays in a calendar month. Our General Meetings are always held on the *fourth* wednesday of the month... See you in May :) Nancy * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From gtruzzi at scn.org Fri Apr 24 15:15:00 1998 From: gtruzzi at scn.org (Gianni Truzzi) Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 15:15:00 -0700 Subject: ADSS -- Volunteer Opportunity Message-ID: <35410EE4.2914@scn.org> "Americans Discuss Social Security" will be doing its Citizen Forum on May 2, and is in need of volunteers to help out with this one-day event. I'm forwarding this note from the local organizer, Kris Jorgensen: "Volunteers – we still need numbers for the day of the event. Volunteers from the Austin event really enjoyed themselves. They got to carry great walkie-talkies, had earphones and played a very active role. Please let me know if you know of interested parties. They are going to be an integral part of the program and should have fun." If interested, please contact Kris at kjorg at aol.com. ============================================================= Gianni Truzzi gtruzzi at scn.org ============================================================= * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From steve at accessone.com Sat Apr 25 11:26:35 1998 From: steve at accessone.com (Steve Hoffman) Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 10:26:35 -0800 Subject: Copyright Message-ID: <199804251725.KAA17438@accessone.com> Strangling Culture With a Copyright Law Steve Zeitlin NY Times 4/25/98 In June 1940 at an oil workers' strike in Oklahoma City, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie were asked to do what they did best -- get the crowd singing at the next day's rally. A labor organizer's wife particularly wanted to know if Guthrie knew any songs about union women. Mr. Seeger recalls that the next morning he heard the tap-tap-tapping of Guthrie's typewriter. When Guthrie came down for breakfast, he had two verses and the now-famous chorus for "Union Maid": Oh you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union till the day I die. Bess Lomax Hawes, former director of the Folk Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts, remembers a conversation she had with Guthrie years later. "I told Woody that I thought that the chorus of 'Union Maid' had gone so completely into oral tradition that no one knew where it came from," she recounted. "It was part of the cultural landscape, no longer even associated with him. He answered, 'If that were true, it would be the greatest honor of my life.' " Legislation now in Congress to extend the copyright law threatens to make it more difficult for this nation's creativity to become part of our cultural landscape, part of a common heritage of folklore circulating freely in the public domain. Paradoxically, one corporation leading the charge is among the greatest appropriators of folk culture: Disney. For his animated features "Snow White" and "Cinderella," Walt Disney drew on folktales that had been passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years. Now the Walt Disney Company, along with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, or Ascap, and the Gershwin Family Trust, is among those lobbying Congress to add 20 more years of copyright protection to the law. With millions of dollars at stake each year, they are intent on keeping "intellectual property" like Mickey Mouse from falling into the public domain. The Founding Fathers introduced the principle of copyright into Article 1 of the Constitution but were careful to note that it should last "for limited times." The first copyright law, in 1790, guaranteed 14 years of protection with a 14-year renewal. But the period of protection has been extended several times since. For an individual today, a copyright now lasts for the life of the artist plus 50 years. For a corporation, a copyright lasts 75 years. The time period was last extended in 1976, when many valuable copyrights were about to expire. The new extension would prevent any "works of authorship" from going into the public domain for 20 years. Indeed, the powerful entertainment industry seems intent on never allowing copyrights to expire, repeatedly lobbying for extensions at the 11th hour. The 20-year extension (now named the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act) has passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate. When the bill was first proposed in Congress in early 1997, sponsors described it as a win-win situation, and proponents wondered who, if anyone, could oppose it. Who? The public, in the broadest sense. We the people. Dennis Karjala, a law professor at the University of Arizona, has noted that under the new law our roly-poly Santa Claus, originally created by the 19th-century cartoonist Thomas Nast, would not have gone into the public domain until 1973. Even the United States Government would have had to pay royalties to use Nast's Uncle Sam in all of this century's wars. Just as Uncle Sam and Santa eventually became part of the public domain, available for anyone to use in any season, so eventually should Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny take their places in our free-to-all pantheon of cultural icons. Traditional singers, storytellers and quilters borrow freely from one another. No one owns the copyright to their material. In fact, folklorists have often found themselves in the somewhat contradictory role of helping traditional artists to copyright their work so they are assured of making an honest living from it. Early in this century, Alan Lomax -- going against the opinion of many folklorists that traditional songs should not be copyrighted -- took what was later to become the controversial step of copyrighting songs like Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" and Honey Boy Edwards's "Worried Life Blues" in both his own and the artist's name. He argued that record companies would never track down artists like Edwards in the Mississippi Delta to pay royalty checks. No folklorist today would argue that an artist should not reap the rewards of his labor. Yet folklorists, along with folk artists, are equally cognizant of the value of a fertile public domain. It is the nurturing ground for folk culture, from which songs and stories are drawn in the first place and to which they should, half a century after the artist's death, return. Proponents of the current legislation argue that an artist's creations are a form of property that should be handed down to his or her descendants as a form of wealth. But to treat all creative expression as a form of capital that cannot be recycled, reused or built upon without paying fees to the artist's descendants more than 50 years after the artist has died stifles cultural creativity. Ultimately, it does more for the longevity of the art, and the memory of the artist, to assure that at some point the work receives the extra push of circulating royalty-free. Some of those arguing for the extension of the copyright law have already given us glimpses of how tight their grip on their properties would be. In 1995, Ascap demanded that royalties be paid by Girl Scout camps for songs sung around the campfire. The absurdity of this reached its height when a troop of Scouts at a day camp in California, afraid of being charged a fee, danced the Macarena in silence. Ascap soon backed down. A few years earlier, Disney had engendered a similar public relations nightmare when it tried to charge a day care center in Florida royalties for painting Mickeys and Plutos on the walls. L ike Disney, Ira and George Gershwin drew on folklore and oral tradition for their masterpiece, "Porgy and Bess." Today, the Gershwin Family Trust points out that the copyright extension is not only about money but also about control of how a work is presented. A co-trustee, Marc G. Gershwin, was quoted in a recent news article as lamenting, "Someone could turn 'Porgy and Bess' into rap music." The work of the Gershwin brothers drew on African-American musical traditions. What could be more appropriate? If corporations thought they could get away with it, they might charge a few cents every time we copied a cartoon to distribute in the office or hummed a song in the shower. A penny for your thoughts? No, it's part of our role in life to make songs and stories our own, to transform pop culture into what the sociologist Gary Fine calls idioculture, the idiosyncratic adaptation of mass culture that occurs in families and communities. An authentic cultural democracy, Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard have noted, "requires active participation in cultural life, not just passive consumption of cultural products." In his introduction to "Rise Up Singing," the classic sing-along collection used by many camps and Scout troops, Pete Seeger writes, "Change a word, add a verse . . . plan for improvisation." The interests of songwriters and screenwriters and the corporations they work for have to be balanced against the importance of our collective folk culture. As Mr. Seeger put it from his home in Beacon, N.Y., "The grandchildren should be able to find some other way to make a living, even if their grandfather did write 'How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?' " Steve Zeitlin, the director of City Lore: The New York Center for Urban Folk Culture, is the author of "Because God Loves Stories: An Anthology of Jewish Storytelling." Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END From steve at accessone.com Thu Apr 30 09:16:32 1998 From: steve at accessone.com (Steve Hoffman) Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 08:16:32 -0800 Subject: Net salvation Message-ID: <199804301515.IAA08546@accessone.com> Lest we forget what this access can mean to folks..... ============================= Finding Liberation in Cyberspace Ella Veres NY Times 4/30/98 BUDAPEST -- For me, the Internet is paradise. It is as if I am sitting at a table full of appetizing foods after suffering from chronic starvation. Or as if I am a beggar who finds herself in a department store that, incomprehensibly, gives out everything for free. When I surf the Web, it is as if I am going around with my shopping cart, piling it up with all the bounty that I was deprived of for so long. I suspect my experience in getting on line from this part of the planet is different from what prevails in the United States. For example, whenever I have peeped into American chat rooms, I have found complaints about too much data. For me that is not a problem. I love the glut of information and I wallow in it because in a very real way, it has been the computer and the Internet that have made me free. I am a freelance journalist and writer. When I came to Budapest from my native Romania six years ago on a fellowship to study American civilization, I had hardly seen a computer. They were not accessible at home. Here at the university, I was able to take a class in computer basics. In the beginning, the lab in my residence was not particularly appealing. It was littered with old soda cans, and most of the keyboards had malfunctioning keys. I was apprehensive as I watched many colleagues spend much of their time in front of a computer screen, playing games or flirting with unseen correspondents. I feared that I might become another flat-bottomed zombie. But at the same time I was fascinated by the possibilities, and I persevered. After suffering through the early frustrations of losing files and learning to control the mouse, I have become so attached to my keyboard, mouse and screen that my fellow students now refer to me as the Graphomaniac. I think the term connotes some respect. I certainly do not feel any shame for spending as much as 14 hours a day at the keyboard; in the last two years, I have produced a roman-fleuve, in addition to term papers, plays and journalism articles. After I learned how to use search engines and E-mail, I was quickly dragged into Marshall McLuhan's "global subconscious" and became mesmerized by the Internet's possibilities. I often forgot to eat, sleep or attend drab lectures. I cut down on noncyber socializing. To communicate instantly with someone far away was exhilarating, all the more so since I came from a part of the world where, before 1989, letters were routinely censored; seldom would one from abroad even reach you. Now, at the touch of a key, I could be an insider, au courant on subjects from Pampers to Cubism. Suddenly I had access to information that I had never known existed. It was like a fairy tale. I registered for news groups and learned how I could instantly find experts who could answer any question I could pose. For a time in the beginning, however, I grew paranoid, thinking that hooking into the cyberworld was akin to opening your door in the middle of the night to an unknown caller. I remember one spooky fantasy in which I was tormented by fears that somehow the emanations coming through the computer screen would hurt my child. For someone who grew up in a Transylvanian village under the Ceausescu regime, such metaphors come naturally. Who knew who was lurking out there -- miscreants, crooks, evildoers of all kinds? Yet my relative isolation offered some security. After all, most of my correspondents had addresses in America, and the Atlantic Ocean provided a comforting moat. As my dialogues widened, the fears vanished. I ventured farther, and every step paid off. No longer did I long for books that the libraries did not contain. I didn't have the money to order them, but with E-mail I was able to find kind and generous people who would send me books. Call it Internet begging, but it served me well. Or if no one helped me with a book itself, I could type a word and, boom, loads of pages related to my interest could be summoned to my screen. In this way, I was able to write my thesis on New Journalism in America in less than three months, amazing my aging professor with the quality of the information I had gathered. He said that a decade earlier students drudged for at least a year jotting down scraps of material in dusty libraries, cursing the lack of books. At the same time, my fiction-writing efforts, all in English, erupted, primarily because of my E-mail pals. It was similar to telling the story of your life to total strangers on a train, only you weren't limited to those sitting in your compartment. From these E-mail correspondences grew my first, as yet unpublished, novel. I assume that by now, other writers have used this method. Still, even if I do not end up claiming the invention of a literary form, I am grateful to E-mail for harnessing my imagination and to the Web for providing me with my own bit of cyberspace: a Web site. Among other things, I thought a Web site would let me avenge myself on the Hungarian-, Romanian- and English-language newspapers and magazines that had seen fit to run my articles in trimmed or even eviscerated form. With a Web site, I could post the articles as I wrote them, with the hope that somebody would notice them. A single mother like myself who earned what I earned through journalism in Hungary would, under normal circumstances, be foolishly extravagant to think of having a home page. But I was given an internship at Radio Free Europe in Prague, where I was taught HTML, a programming language for Web sites, and obtained cybercitizenship for free. I have my own page. It is one of millions. It is modest as such pages go. But I am there. When I first got my own piece of cyberspace, I joyously thought: "I am free now. No one can confine me anymore. Farewell editors, visas, borders. I am free and people will hear what I have to say because I have something to say." Well, it isn't quite like that, but almost. For one thing, I still have not figured out how to make money out of all the writing. But I am working on it. Now as I hunt for work assignments in the United States and for fellowships or internships, I don't carry or send portfolios by costly snail mail. I just suggest a visit to my Web site. At the very least, I have already saved money on paper and photocopying expenses that can now be spent for toys or ice cream for my son. I realize that in some circles, my blatant careerism may be considered vulgar or unseemly, but I also think that allowances must be made in the case of a Transylvanian woman who spent her adolescence watching movies and wondering how she was ever to escape a picturesque but oppressive life that seemed to offer just two possibilities: teaching at a primary school in a rustic landscape of muddy roads, gaunt faces and boozy bumpkins, or being buried alive in a dusty small town where nothing was ever likely to happen. The Internet offered escape and, perhaps, salvation. Thanks to it, I found out about creative-writing graduate programs that did not exist in Eastern Europe. I rushed to apply to 11 American universities. A good many have accepted me, and while the problem of finding ways to pay for such blessings has not yet been solved, the Internet has yielded ideas about where to seek financial resources. By now I have realized that there is nothing at all to be afraid of, and maybe one day, if I am lucky enough to make my way to one of those universities, I, too, will be complaining about being overwhelmed by all the available information. But right now, like someone who still remembers an old hunger, I will take every byte I can get. Thank you very much. copyright 1998 The New York Times Company * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From the Listowner * * * * * * * * * * * * . To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: majordomo at scn.org In the body of the message, type: unsubscribe scn END