roundtable: dirt cheap gateway
roundtable: dirt cheap gateway
dirt cheap gateway
Jack Crawford (jcc@aruba.nysaes.cornell.edu)
Fri, 24 Feb 1995 13:28:24 -0500 (EST)
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 1995 13:28:24 -0500 (EST)
From: Jack Crawford <jcc@aruba.nysaes.cornell.edu>
Subject: dirt cheap gateway
To: roundtable@cni.org
Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9502241300.C28668-0100000@aruba.nysaes.cornell.edu>
FIDO/K12Net:
DIRT CHEAP GATEWAY TO THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
FOR THE RURAL MASSES
(c) Februray 8, 1995 by Jack Crawford
Wayne-Finger Lakes Area Teacher Resource Center
FIDOnet 1:260/620
jack@rochgte.fidonet.org
There's a grassroots movement throughout the world that is quietly
empowering "have not" rural communities by introducing them to the
"global village" of international telecommunications on a local phone
call with no fees . Conspicuously absent from this is the inherent
exploitativeness of commercial environments or the taxpayer burden of
the "too-much-government" cost-ineffectiveness of centralized
technocracies.
Rural citizens, as a group, tend to remain unaware of the richness of
telecommunications-based activites and resources the big cities enjoy
because they are "long distance to the rest of the civilized world".
While fee-based online resources have been available to rural folks
for years, few seem to make much use of them. Whenever a rural person
is online, the "meter is running". The result is that use of
commercial and real-time Internet services is kept to an absolute
minimum. In most cases, that means no use at all. Rural people are
just not in the "habit" of using online resources as a result. The
"toll booths" on the Information Highway turn rural people off to
telecommunications!
As a result of these factors, rural educators, students and community
members tend to have little or no initial experience with, or even a
working concept of, the online world. Most often they just plain don't
understand the critcal importance of becoming involved with
telecommunications in the first place and, therefore, are unable to
self-justify the significant costs of using of online resources in
their everyday lives. They are "out of the loop". They need a place to
start--something to "whet their appe tites" that will allow them to
spend hours and hours exploring the Net--and do it very cheaply, if
not for free! Rural people are beginning to discover the unique
advantages and affordability of FIDOnet BBS's, not as as alternative
to pay-for services, but as a starting point toward them.
As of February, 1995, FIDOnet is a worldwide community of nearly
35,000 inter-networked, yet independantly owned, operated and funded
electronic Bulletin Board Systems or "BBS's". (Five years ago there
were only 6,000!) Roughly half of these are in the United
States--that's slightly more than one for every one of the 14,000 or
so school districts in the country. Any medium-sized rural town in the
U.S. probably has at least one FIDOnet BBS that is open to the general
public with no fees. This is a non-comm ercial environment that has
been aptly described as "militantly free", both in terms of cost and
spirit. There are few "toll booths"! FIDOnet is a community that is
soley regulated by market forces. It is not an "organization" nor is
it subject to the fickleness, ineffficencies or political agendas of
any government, bureacracy or centralized funding source. FIDOnet is
not encumbered by technocracy. Maybe this is why it works so well....
FIDOnet's store-and-forward technology has evolved through many
generations of incessant, international tinkering in the last ten
years to become surprizingly sophisticated yet still amazingly
affordable. The equipment, budget and technical expertise required to
set up and maintain a FIDOnet BBS capable of serving the students,
teachers and taxpayers of a rural community is usually well within the
range of any school district with a bit of resolve. Startup costs,
including software, modem and a brand new co mputer, can easily be
below $1,300 in the U.S and much cheaper if used equipment is
available! Technical and training expertise is developed locally to
meet the needs of local people and can provide rural students with
career-track experience pointing directly to the telecommunications
industry. The school and it's community learn "how to fish" rather
than being "fed a fish for the day"... Note, too, that the bulk of the
intial expense goes to tangible assets suc h as computers and software
rather than consu mable services. Telephone lines needed are
inexpensive voice grade and costs for substantial network content to
serve the entire community, even if obtained overlong distance, is
similar to that of a few postage stamps per day. It just doesn't get
any cheaper than this...
In addition to providing the ability to send private "email" letters
between anyone on a FIDOnet BBS or the Internet, there are also
literally thousands of one-to-many public conferences available. These
allow people to publicly discuss, debate or ask questions about the
things that matter to them with other people all over the world. The
nature of these conferences may be very broad in scope such as
"politics" or "cooking" or can be narrowly defined to such topics as
"beekeeping", "quilting", issues involv ing church & state, etc. An
"article" posted in a conference will be "echoed", without editing or
censorship, to every other BBS on earth that is carrying it where
anyone may read and respond to it. This is like a neural net which
spans the planet, providing a place for a "meeting of the minds" that
is not limited by distance or time... and is freely accessible to the
general public on a local phone call! This is the last real bastion of
free press!
Graphical and multi-media interfaces, multi-gigabyte harddrives and
multi-disc CD-ROM drives on many FIDO BBS's make massive file
resources available in an environment that is attractive, easy to use
and available on a local phone call. FIDOnet technology is also quite
at home with satellite distribution as well as the gating of USEnet
newsgroups and Internet email. FIDO BBS system software is usually
dirt cheap if not free and can be surprizingly adept at dealing with
multiple phoneline and local area netw ork environments.
Approximately 600 FIDO BBS's worldwide also carry the K12Net feed
which provides content directly oriented to elementary and secondary
school curriculum and student use. (There are over 100 K12Net BBS's in
New Zealand, alone!) Most of the three dozen K12Net conference areas,
which cover the the traditional curriculum areas and provide vehicles
for teacher-designed international classroom projects, are also gated
to the Internet as the k12.* hierarchy. Some schools use a "sneaker
net" approach to allow the ir students to interact in email and
conferences in classrooms without phonelines or modems using offline
mail readers. (Lack of phone lines in the classrooms and the prospect
of sizeable phone bills are the single biggest barrier to any kind of
telecom in schools!!!)
As rural schools are usually at the geographic center of activities
for their local communities, they are probably the most logical
organization to house, operate and provide institutional credibility
to a FIDO/K12Net BBS to serve that community. BBS's operated by a
rural school can provide a valuable public service that helps to
promote further understanding, collaboration and support between
schools and their communities. Schools which set up and operate their
own FIDO/K12Net BBS's develop their own in-ho use base of technical
and training expertise. They learn how to "fish to feed themselves"
rather than being "fed a fish for the day".
I have set up and provide technical support to over a dozen
FIDO/K12Net BBS's in schools within an hour's drive from where I live
out here in a rural area of western New York State characterized by
cow pastures, cornfields and long distance phone bills. The demand
for them is growing steadily, probably because schools are finding
that setup and operational costs are so low that funding is simply
not an issue in many cases. My observation is that their use is
helping to build a base of community advocacy for greater telecom
capabilities. For the first time, rural students, teachers and
taxpayers can now spend *hours* exploring the online worlds of email,
newsgroups and file libraries without running up a phone bill or
blowing their VISA cards or classroom budgets into oblivion or
placing a burden on their taxpayers. They finally have a reason to
buy one of those "modem-thingies" and to support funding for even
greater telecom capabilites in their schools. (Thi s lack of advocacy
is a very important, though ofte n overlooked or underestimated
aspect of getting people involved with telecom, particularly in
schools.) People first need to learn how to ride a bicycle before you
can expect them to want...or be willing to pay for a Harley! Those
that have been logging onto our FIDO/K12Net BBS's are beginning learn
how to "ride"...
FIDO/K12Net may not be have the "Web-Wonder" or "Gopher-glitter" of
the real-time Internet or commercial services but it is far more
affordable and accessible on a day-to-day basis to most rural
neophyte modem users at home or in school. It is telecom for the
rural masses that can provide more "bang for the buck" and less
burden on the taxpayer than any other technology. Period! And,
overall, it really does a pretty good job with email, conferencing
and file libraries which are the real "meat and potatoes" of online
use in the first place. It is the "bicy cle path" next to the
information highway... It is a sensible way for the "have-nots" of
the world to start learning how to "ride a bicycle" so that, some
day soon, they'll want a "Harley"...
For more information contact Jack Crawford, Wayne-Finger Lakes Teacher
Resource Center, 703 E. Maple, #10 Eisenhower Hall, Newark, NY,
14513-1863. Voice: 315/331-1584, fax: 315/331-1587
Widespread, strictly non-commercial dissemination of this document
in its original, unaltered form with the copyright notice and this
permission intact is both authorized and encouraged.
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