Cleveland Freenet eulogy

[Doug Schuler]

Here is an eulogy of the Cleveland Freenet...

-- Doug



       Cleveland Freenet closed on October 1, 1999
     Long Live Its Goal of Access to the Internet for ALL!

                           by Ronda Hauben, (formerly au329 at cleveland.edu)
                           ronda at ais.org


     Cleveland Freenet closed on October 1, 1999

     The Cleveland Freenet was something very special in the
history of the development of the Internet as it made access to
the Internet avaialable to all in the community.

     It made access available to school children in Cleveland as I
learned when I gave at talk at a conference in Cleveland in 1988.
The teacher introducing me told me how her students loved
being online and communicating with other students.

     It made access available in special new forms. Unsung pioneers
like Dr. Bohl of the St. Silicon Sports Medicine Clinic on the
Cleveland Freenet would respond to questions from users with
sports medicine problems from the earliest days of St. Silicon
Hospital till the closing of the Freenet on October 1, 1999.

     Dr. Bohl would post the questions sent to him as anonymous posts
and would provide a helpful response that was available for all
who looked in on the clinic newsgroup. One user had an experience
where an injury that more than 20 doctors in the Detroit and Ann Arbor
areas of Michigan were not able to diagnosis and treat was
identified by Dr. Bohl. From the email the user wrote to him, he
provided information about what the problem was likely to be, along
with the proviso that this was general information not a particular
diagnosis. Because of his online clinic it was possible to get the
needed treatment to cure the injury, and then to even correspond
with the doctor via email in an early use of email between patient
and doctor. Also all who looked in on the online clinic newsgroup
would be able to learn about the nature of sports medicine injuries
and the varieties of their treatment from the helpful responses to
individual questions posted on the newsgroup.

     The Freenet made an email mailbox available to each user so
they could use and participate in email. Shortly after I signed
onto the Cleveland Freenet I had the thrill of receiving a New
Year's greeting from a friend in Australia.

     One of the most important aspects of Cleveland Freenet was
when it provided a free and helpful means for its users to
explore and to post to Usenet newsgroups. After a post on Freenet
I was soon receiving email from numbers of people and also the
posts generated interesting and sometimes prolonged discussion.
It was only the fact that Cleveland Freenet provided totally free
access that made it possible for me to participate in Usenet. And
for years afterwards, Cleveland Freenet made it possible to have
a connection to Usenet newsgroups.

     When the green card lawyers wrote their infamous book
advising on how to spam the Net, they advised spammers to stay
away from the Freenets, warning them of the acceptible use
policy of the Freenets which required responsible use from its
users.

     Sometime after I first got onto Cleveland Freenet, a U.S.
government official from the Office of Technology Assessment
(OTA) posted requesting input on what users felt should be the
role of the U.S. government in providing access to the Internet
to citizens. Many people posted their responses. Several people
responded that it was important that all have access, as citizens
would be empowered by an ability to be online.

     Again in 1994 the U.S. government, this time via the National
Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA), sponsored an
online conference requesting input from users about their ideas
on providing universal access to the Internet. On Cleveland
Freenet this conference was carried as a local newsgroup making
it easier to participate than in the mailing list form, as the
volume of comments was very great.

     Learning from the experience of the Cleveland Freenet,
Canadian Freenets were started. The Freenet movement in Canada
soon became a grassroots movement to make access available to all
Canadians. Also Freenets were set up in some in European
countries, including Finland and Germany.

     The development of the Cleveland Freenet provided a model
for how the U.S. government could encourage and support a low
cost means of access to the Internet for all. The U.S. government
has missed this opportunity and both the U.S. government and the
people of the U.S. have lost something very important.

     The notion of a system of computer communications networks
making email and Usenet access available to all has provided an
inspiring and important goal.  The global communications that
the Internet makes possible and affordable is a very precious
treasure and a signficant new development for our times. The
Cleveland Freenet has provided a body of experience showing that
such a goal is far from impossible. Those who recognize the
importance of this goal need to redouble their efforts to make
the vision of all having access to e-mail, Usenet newsgroups and
a browser, a reality.

    A special thank you to all who contributed to make the experience
of the Cleveland Freenet such an important one in the development
of the Internet.

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