Computer underground Digest Wed Sep 17, 1997 Volume 9 : Issue 69 ISSN 1004-042X Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu) News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu) Archivist: Brendan Kehoe Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala Ian Dickinson Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest CONTENTS, #9.69 (Wed, Sep 17, 1997) File 1--Intro to CuD Special Issue on Net Education File 2--A Celebration of the Potential of the Net File 3--The Vacuity of Information File 4--Alternative News Revolution (oNline Christian Mag reprint) File 5--NII Award File 6--New Free Educational Sites File 7-- Multiculturalism without People File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 May, 1997) CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 18 Sep 97 22:26 CDT From: Cu Digest Subject: File 1--Intro to CuD Special Issue on Net Education Computer-enhanced processes of education and learning promise "new and improved" forms of delivering knowledge to students, and technology is often seen as a possible supplement for, even alternative means of, teaching. The question becomes whether this technology will ultimately enhance education or whether it poses more dangers than it is worth. Technology undoubtedly can produce new ways of formulating knowledge and also new locate, retrieve, and process information. But, can the promise of a computer-generated pedagogical revolution be realized? Or, are the promises just another brand of "snake oil" in which the dangers outweigh any realistic curative power? The emergence of online universities range from fly-by-night operations to sophisticated consortiums, including the ten-state Western University, and many states are exploring computer-mediated educational projects as alternatives to classrooms. In Illinois, for example, a task force of the Illinois Board of Higher Education has formed a task force whose mandate includes examination of delivering interactive technology-based distance learning beyond the conventional classroom setting. A month ago, we indicated that we would run a few special issues on the Net and education-related issues. We have a variety of bits, blurbs, commentaries and general info that we'll run over the next month or two. We will try to include everything from short announcements to conferences and full-length articles from as many perspectives as possible. Some of the issues in this "Education and the Net" series might strike some as out of the general range of normal CuD topics. But, the emergence of the Net as a teaching aid, and the growing of some states to pursue distance learning in "virtual classrooms" makes this a critically important issue. Is a virtual classroom possible? Can learning occur without face-to-face contact? Is there a difference between "Net learning" and "Net education?" Can the Net replace conventional classrooms? Will virtual classrooms be driven by fiscal concerns and, in a sort of Gresham's law, drive out the more expensive face-to-face pedagogy? Does synchronous audio-visual/interactive software provide the same benefits as face-to-face learning? These and other questions will be addressed each month for the next few months. We hope that those with experience in or opinions about "virtual education" will periodically respond to some of the issues raised. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 21:09:30 -0500 From: Johnny C Dystar Subject: File 2--A Celebration of the Potential of the Net Since it's dawn in 1992, the famed Internet has always been used for one purpose and one purpose only: information. The Net has always been seen as a highway laid with silicon. Netizens are road warriors. Their will based on the faith that there will always be something to learn; their vehicles, powered by electricity, called computers. They drive on the Information SuperHighway and on backroads, called "networks". Some have roamed these roads forever, and their skills have sharpened by this. Some have come to be wizards in the enlightened realm of darkness called Cyberspace, the uncharted territory between man and machine. The world will never be the same as it was when the invention of the Internet was constructed. In the course of but a few years, the world communicated through and with the greatest construction man has made since the telephone. The Net was made known, and mankind smiled at the possibilities. And they had every right to... With this issue, we celebrate the Internet, and the possibilities it holds, and has achieved. We celebrate a future, a relationship, and a connection, with our mechanical counter-parts, our greatest non-living friends, the machines. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 15:33:17 EDT From: Steve Talbott Subject: File 3--The Vacuity of Information Source - NetFuture Issue #54 July 30, 1997 -------------------------------------------------- Editor: Stephen L. Talbott (stevet@oreilly.com) On the Web: http://www.oreilly.com/people/staff/stevet/netfuture/ You may redistribute this newsletter for noncommercial purposes. The Vacuity of Information -------------------------- According to David Shenk, author of *Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut*, For many businesses, the irony is that the cheaper information becomes, the more expensive it is to deal with. Yes, although I'm not so sure about the irony. If "information" is precisely articulable, if it is measurable as so many bits stored in a database, if it is easily transmissible -- in other words, if it fits the criteria for information according to the prevalent rhetoric -- then it follows in a straightforward way that any preoccupation with information will penalize our pursuit of whatever is important. Why? Because the precision, the measurability, and the transmissibility all stand in a kind of opposition to depth of meaning and significance. This trade-off is clearly demonstrable through an examination of the basic act of communication (see, for example, my discussion in http://www.oreilly.com/people/staff/stevet/fdnc/ch23.html), yet it remains the great, ignored truth at the heart of the Information Age. We have, of course, almost made a cliche of the slogan, "information is not wisdom." But until we vividly recognize the actual *opposition* between the two terms -- and learn to live creatively within this opposition -- the effort to reconceive society in terms of information and its flows will prove extremely corrosive of everything that matters. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 23:28:59 -0400 From: Tom Truex Subject: File 4--Alternative News Revolution (oNline Christian Mag reprint) ((CuD MODERATORS' NOTE: Assigning current events to students raises the question of whose news and how that news is reported. The Internet provides considerable potential for alternative news sources, but inexperienced teachers might not know how to sort out the nuggets from the trash)). SOURCE: oNline Christian eMagazine 1. Request to be put on the mailing list by sending email to sleddog@k-line.org 3. World Wide Web: http://www.interpoint.net/~sleddog 4. FidoNet (1:369/155), FREQ, using the magic word, "EMAG." =============================================================== EDITORIAL: Alternative News Revolution =============================================================== A specter is haunting cyber-space. The specter of alternative news. I suppose that I wouldn't be informing anyone of anything{2} if I announced that there is a lot of good information available in cyberspace. Vice President Gore pronounced as much several years ago. Which pretty much makes the concept official. There's even real news in cyberspace. But the real spine jolting, heart stopping, mind numbingly incredible fact of the matter is that the traditional method of delivery of news as we know it--at least in the USA--may not be the best, most effective or ACCURATE way to gather one's news!{3} This observation, if you buy it, is doubly shocking in the USA where the news media shares a role in our society on par with the importance of the three "official" Constitutional branches of government.{4} Alternative news sources have been around as long as humans have existed. In a primitive form, sitting on the front porch and gossiping with the neighbors is "alternative news." Or standing around the water cooler at work. But to get one's story told in the mainstream news is another matter. By "mainstream" news, I mean TV, radio, newspapers and magazines with glossy pages. That is, the way that we have obtained most of our news for the the second half of the 20th Century. In order for a story to be published in the mainstream news, the story has to be something that the mainstream media wants to publish. And what the mainstream media wants to publish is the best story with which to package the advertising. So the "traditional" or "mainstream" media is also the "commercial" media. Certainly, big, expensive, high-tech news organizations have to be profitable if they are going to be free of government financing (read: "government control"). But the mainstream media--what we used to call the "free press"--is not quite free. It is mostly free from government control, but still quite dependant on commercial market forces. That is, advertising. What pushes sales in advertising? That which is sexual, lurid, unusual, outlandish, trendy. Especially sexual. What shows up in the commercial news? Same thing. But none of this is to say that commercial news is evil, or unreliable. Given a choice between the government, or the soft drink, beer, and automotive companies steering the direction of the news, I'll pick the latter every time. Certainly, incrementally, the mainstream commercial news is pretty accurate. Yes, there was really a murder downtown last night. And, yes, there really were three unrelated murders in different neighborhoods last week. And, in fact, some people did get knocked off around town every week for as long as I remember. Welcome to the big city in the US of A. Each cops and killer news story is accurate (to some extent) when taken alone. But the commercial news is not really accurate when taken in the aggregate. To focus on the lurid and unsavory is to distort what the "news" is really about. IMHO, of course. So if a former football player kills his wife{5}, the commercial news can't be pried off the story with an oversized crowbar. Or if a well known fashion designer gets killed--another uproar. And all of the time and effort expended on such news--that is, the unseemly packaging for beer and soft drink commercials--crowds out what might have been called news in a former time. Commercial news is probably what the public wants to hear. If it wasn't, then the marketing whiz bangs would steer the news to what the consumers (eh, that's "audience") wants to hear. I could argue that the public needs REAL news--not the blood and guts parade of horrors that passes as the evening news. But it's a funny fact that apparently the public does NOT need any such thing. The world seems to function just fine with the majority of its' population blithely just along for the ride. In fact, I find no fault with the commercial news doing what it is intended to do. Sell a product. Having said all of this, in all fairness to commercial news, if you look in the right place at the right time, you may stumble across a piece or two of real news in the mainstream commercial news. An unavoidable by-product of the commercial packaging, I suppose. Advances in modern electronic communication--particularly the popularization of communications via personal computers--have added a totally new dimension to the distribution of news. It is a a dimension that is largely overlooked and wildly under-reported by (you guessed it) the mainstream commercial media! Internet Newsgroups, FidoNet Echo's{6} and computer mailing lists are particularly valuable sources of alternative news. Without getting bogged down in a discussion of the how the technology works,{7} suffice it to say that these formats permit the news "source" to log onto a host computer, such as an Internet service provider or a BBS and post messages/text files. The message can be most anything, including front line, on the edge, cutting news. Any other computer user, anywhere else in the world can log on to another computer and read the message. So far, we have the recipe for a mad, chaotic cyber shouting match. But, notwithstanding the needle in the haystack image, a lot of good, alternative news gets transmitted this way. The problem is sorting out the valuable news from the crackpots and porno advertisers. Some perfectly respectable sounding distribution channels--Newsgroups, Usenet or FidoNet--seem to have have nothing but advertisements for Internet sites where you can find pictures of nude cheerleaders.{8} However, if there's a moderator, and a way to enforce the banishment of kooks and creeps, then you may still be able to sift through the junk for some good stuff. Of course, depending on the moderator, you may have a sage guide to the far corners of alternative cyber news. Or you might just inject another kook or crackpot into the mix. Now the astute reader{9} will ask how I can say that commercial news is inaccurate because in the aggregate it distorts the importance of things; and still suggest that alternative news is any better when in the aggregate, it is vastly more untamed and difficult to gather in a usable form. So it is here that I must admit that it is only in certain areas that alternative news really excels. You have to know which mailing lists to subscribe to; and which Internet newsgroups; and which FidoNet echoes to visit. And you have to accept that only certain types of news are really well reported. Large, national or global matters are well reported in alternative news channels.{10} Telecommunication, social and political issues are extremely well reported. As well as thousands of other topics from the esoteric to the downright inane. For the most part, alternative news on these topics can be found which is just as accurate{11}, more timely, and more detailed than what you will find in traditional commercial news channels. And once you locate the appropriate alternate news channels, you can forevermore have the news delivered right to your very own e-mailbox. Good quality mailing lists are easy to find and subscriptions are usually free. If there is a mailing list that charges a fee, I'd be suspicious. Mailing lists may be a steady stream of information--like a traditional wire service--or a periodically published newsletter or eMagazine. Internet Newsgroup discussion areas are offered, at least in the USA, as part of the basic package from most any Internet Service provider (ISP). And for the frugal folks among our readers, FidoNet is free, if you have a local subscribing BBS. You might guess from the title of this publication--oNline Christian eMagazine--that the alternative news sources that I personally subscribe to tend to be pretty conservative. But regardless of your religious persuasion, political point of view, nationality or orientation, some news sources that you might think are too preachy are in fact pretty good sources of alternative news. Missionary groups have been known to travel the world in search of troubled spots, political uprisings, social turmoil, famines, natural disasters and the like. A lot of these folks are part time reporters and like to send e-mail by the bushel. Another source of alternative news by the ton are the academic-type egg heads. They love to send out newsletters, when they're not too busy torturing undergraduates. Also, a newsletter is easier than getting published in a real academic journal. I could give you a list of my favorite alternative news sources. But that would take the sport of the whole endeavor for you. Just look around. To paraphrase that fellow, Karl somebody: Cyber citizens of all nations Unite! You have nothing to lose but silly commercials and lurid mainstream pseudo-news. You have a world to gain. --------- FOOTNOTES {2} Or, no one of nothing. So to speak. {3} Whew. Stop to draw breath, after incredibly long run-on sentence. {4} Brief trivia point for our non-USA readers: the three constitutional branches of government in the USA are the [1] legislative (Congress), [2] executive (the President), and [3] judicial (courts). Some would argue that Bill Gates should be ranked ahead of one or more of these three. I'm just reporting it as they used to teach it in Civics class. {5} Hypothetically speaking, of course. Any similarity between the examples cited herein and real people or events is purely coincidental. {6} FidoNet is a world wide network of computer bulletin boards (BBS's). The reference applied to FidoNet should also include the dozens of other BBS networks that use the same or similar technology. {7} Meaning: I don't understand it very well myself. {8} In the first place, I'm not looking for nudie pictures on the Internet And if I was, how could I be sure that they were real cheerleaders? {9} Most people who read this publication, that is. {10} Local issues are pretty much a hit and miss proposition in alternative news channels. The chances are more likely than not that you'll still have to sift through the classified ads and department store sale notices in your local newspaper to get any decent local news. {11} Always a matter of opinion, of course. copyright, Tom Truex, 1997. All rights reserved. c/o K_Line Christian Online, Davie, FL. Permission granted to copy for non-commercial purposes. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 06:35:27 -0700 (PDT) From: Barry Kort Subject: File 5--NII Award MicroMUSE / MuseNet Receives 1996 NII Award MicroMUSE / MuseNet (Multi-User Science Education Network) has won recognition from the National Information Insfrastructure (NII). The judges for the prestigious NII Awards have singled out MicroMUSE / MuseNet for a Certificate of Merit in the 1996 competition, for path-breaking innovation in children's education on the Internet. "The Certificate of Merit is awarded to projects that have distinguished themselves in a particular area, or have accomplished something extraordinary overall," said Jeannine Parker, Director of the Awards Competition. "MicroMUSE / MuseNet has been recognized by our Judges as an exceptional project," Parker said. "In awarding the Certificate of Merit, they made the following comment about your entry: An extraordinary example of corporations partnering with schools and providing value to both parties." The Citation reads: "The NII Awards recognize extraordinary achievement in a new era of communication and knowledge and offer a compelling vision of what is possible when human creativity embraces network technology. The Awards program helps people learn from models of excellence and achieve new heights of prosperity, community, and health in an increasingly connected world." Parker wrote in a letter to Barry Kort, Founding Director of MicroMUSE / MuseNet, "We are extremely grateful for your participation in our program, and very proud of your contribution. You are truly a champion of cyberspace." NII has expanded its reach for 1997 and is now known as Global Information Infrastructure (GII). Sponsored by a uniquely powerful community of private and public sector leaders, the Awards have been highlighted on CNN and showcased at the historic Presidents' Summit for America's Future. USA Today calls the Awards "prestigious -- a cross between the Oscars and the Baldrige Awards." Vice President Al Gore calls the Awards program "an innovation that is important to our future." "I am honored that the 1996 NII Awards Program has selected MicroMUSE / MuseNet for a Certificate of Merit in the Children Award category for Pioneering Innovation in Children's Educational Computer Networking," said Kort. "MicroMUSE / MuseNet continues to demonstrate the value of Educational Community Building on the Internet, and the power of Discovery Learning to turn young people on to the joys of collaboration and project-based learning. "I hope that our example and our model of online learning communities will continue to inspire other pioneers to further bring the fruits of innovation to the children of the world, and to empower them to become life-long learners and life-long contributors to the advance of knowledge, the advance of civilization, and the advance of peace and world harmony," he said. ----------------------------------------------- For more information about the Awards, see The GII Home Page at http://www.gii.com. Read the complete text of the Certificate of Merit and accompanying Cover Letter at http://www.musenet.org/~bkort/nii.award.html. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 16:22:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Kevin Keil Subject: File 6--New Free Educational Sites Just a brief note to let you know about two new educational sites that are interactive and intended for non-technical audiences. I thought you might be interested in these new programs. Human Anatomy On-line covers the subject of the anatomy and Automotive Learning On-line covers the subject of automobiles. They include hundreds of graphics, educational information and animations. These two programs are free to the Internet community. This is a great resource that delivers educational material for schoolchildren to adults. I hope that you will find them to be of high quality and educational. Thank you for your time. Human Anatomy On-line is located at http://www.innerbody.com Automotive Learning On-line is located at http://www.innerauto.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 18:22:12 EDT From: Steve Talbott Subject: File 7-- Multiculturalism without People Source: NETFUTURE, Issue #51, June 18, 1997 ------------------------------------------------- *** Multiculturalism without People (113 lines) From Lowell Monke Letter from Des Moines June 15, 1997 There is a flip side to the use of the 'Net for multicultural education, which I discussed in NF #49. It has to do with the the way the 'Net affects students' and teachers' attitudes toward other cultures that exist in their own communities. For a variety of reasons, Des Moines has become a popular destination for refugees and immigrants from all over the world. The ESL (English as a Second Language) program has exploded in the district, and Central Campus is the first stop for most high schoolers trying to learn English. (Central Campus isn't a school in itself; we provide special services to all of the five district high schools.) Even though our program is a revolving door moving students to their high schools full-time as quickly as possible, there are constantly around 200 ESL students attending Central Campus. One day a couple of years ago, I happened to be standing outside my room just down the hall from the doors opening into a Gifted and Talented Language Arts room and an adjacent ESL room, when the bell rang to end classes. I watched the two groups of students emerge from their rooms, walk side-by-side the twenty feet out the narrow corridor which spills into the hallway, turn the same direction and walk to their lockers, which were directly opposite each other in the hall. From the time the doors opened to the time the halls were cleared, I never saw anyone from one class talk to a person in the other class. Indeed, to the Language Arts students the ESL students seemed more like obstacles to navigate around than interesting people to engage. I don't blame the students for this, and I don't want to paint them as callous snobs. They were merely doing what all students do in a large school: associating with their friends, letting the mass of humanity flow by. But what really caught my attention was that among the students emerging from the Language Arts class were most of the students from a global telecommunications project I was running at the time -- one that centered around a multicultural theme. Here we had been exchanging ideas about cultures with students on the other side of the planet for months, and it had never dawned on these students to merely turn their heads 90 degrees and talk to students from Bosnia, Somalia, the Sudan, Russia, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and half a dozen other nations. The disassociation unnerved me. What does it mean when a group of students are eager (these were all volunteers) to relate to students all over the world via the 'Net, but show no interest at all in talking face-to-face with young people who grew up in some of those very same places? As I said, the students have some excuse. It's difficult in the best of circumstances for young people to initiate new relationships. With ESL students, language is an additional hurdle. But that's where the teacher's responsibility comes in. Far more important than the students' oversight was my negligence. So the question can be reframed to ask what does it mean when teachers like myself don't even think about bringing these two groups of students together, but instead look to the 'Net to fling disembodied text all around the world at people whom our students will likely never meet, and then claim that we have increased our students' multicultural "awareness"? I don't know whether it should make me feel better that I found only one teacher (who teaches world history) who has invited these new immigrants to talk with his students. In my own son's third grade class there are two Bosnian students, two students whose parents came from Southeast Asia, and one whose parents came from India. None of those students, nor their parents, ever got to share with the class their knowledge of their homelands, their customs, their reasons for coming here. Yet we are, as I have said, spending millions of dollars to get computers into the elementary classrooms right now, in part so that our sons and daughters can get involved with the neat multicultural activities on the Internet. A minister once told me about the Missionary Syndrome. This is when members of a congregation are willing to empty their pockets to aid the unknown hapless people who live at least 1000 miles away, but won't lift a finger to help the down-and-outs in their own community (who they know all too well). There seems to be something of the Missionary Syndrome in our passion to connect our students with people on the other side of the world. For some reason we are willing to settle for, even get excited about, bits of writing from long distance, while turning our backs on the stories and insights of students who are literally within arm's reach. It's hard to believe it is the human dimensions of communication that drive this kind of activity. I think for most of us it is our infatuation with the exotic opportunities afforded by the technology, its awesome ability to compress space and time, that drives multicultural (and most other educational) activities on the 'Net. But we ought to recognize that it is also the school structure that contributes to this easy willingness to seek out abstract relationships rather than in-the-flesh ones. We teachers suffer from the same reluctance as our students: working with other teachers is often frustrating. After all, we have been trained to be loners or, at best, collaborators within our departments. The curriculum pigeon-holes all of us so that cutting across it takes enormous energy and creativity -- and not a little willingness to battle bureaucrats. We have all gotten used to relying on standardized texts and all the inert material resources that come with them. People just aren't convenient enough, reliable enough, controllable enough, or full of the objective information we have come to treasure. Add to this mix a machine that you can turn on and off at will and it's pretty easy for the teacher to turn a blind eye on the educational opportunities that exist right outside the classroom door. All of the conditions I've just mentioned are regularly used as arguments for getting students on the 'Net. It allows for collaboration; cuts across the curriculum; and can be customized to suit the teacher and student. But as the little vignettes I've just related illustrate, the comfortable escape the 'Net provides from a regimented system may very well defeat the very purpose we try to use it for. The 'Net provides the form, but lacks the rich content -- the real human, flesh-and-blood relational content, with all the messy issues that we and our students are forced to deal with -- which is the true essence of multicultural education. Or of any education at all, for that matter. ---------- NETFUTURE on the Web: http://www.ora.com/people/staff/stevet/netfuture/ You may redistribute this newsletter for noncommercial purposes. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 May 1997 22:51:01 CST From: CuD Moderators Subject: File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 May, 1997) Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost electronically. CuD is available as a Usenet newsgroup: comp.society.cu-digest Or, to subscribe, send post with this in the "Subject:: line: SUBSCRIBE CU-DIGEST Send the message to: cu-digest-request@weber.ucsd.edu DO NOT SEND SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE MODERATORS. The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-6436), fax (815-753-6302) or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA. To UNSUB, send a one-line message: UNSUB CU-DIGEST Send it to CU-DIGEST-REQUEST@WEBER.UCSD.EDU (NOTE: The address you unsub must correspond to your From: line) Issues of CuD can also be found in the Usenet comp.society.cu-digest news group; on CompuServe in DL0 and DL4 of the IBMBBS SIG, DL1 of LAWSIG, and DL1 of TELECOM; on GEnie in the PF*NPC RT libraries and in the VIRUS/SECURITY library; from America Online in the PC Telecom forum under "computing newsletters;" On Delphi in the General Discussion database of the Internet SIG; on RIPCO BBS (312) 528-5020 (and via Ripco on internet); CuD is also available via Fidonet File Request from 1:11/70; unlisted nodes and points welcome. In ITALY: ZERO! 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Readers are encouraged to submit reasoned articles relating to computer culture and communication. Articles are preferred to short responses. Please avoid quoting previous posts unless absolutely necessary. DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent the views of the moderators. Digest contributors assume all responsibility for ensuring that articles submitted do not violate copyright protections. ------------------------------ End of Computer Underground Digest #9.02 ************************************