🚀 go-pugleaf

Judy Hallman pointed out to me that parts of the NPTN's
"bluebook" ( a guide to developing a community freenet) was
available by anonymous ftp (nptn.org /pub/infosystems/*.txt )

So I pulled down these 10 text files and since they are probably
of interest to most of us (?) I'll post them a bit at the time.
Hopefully this will be helpful to the various committees, though
not all the bluebook info is here.

If there are objections to me doing this, please let me know.

The files are:
academy.one	cfn.menus	nptn.affiliates
nptn.beliefs	nptn.board	nptn.facts
nptn.mission	teledemocracy	what.is.nptn
cybercasting.svcs

I'll put the filename as the subject line when I post.
Here is what.is.nptn:
=======================================================

                    NPTN AND COMMUNITY COMPUTING



The National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN)

   The concept behind NPTN is not new.  You are probably familiar 
with National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting on T.V.  To 
understand NPTN, simply substitute community computer systems for 
radio or television stations, and you have the core of what we 
hope to accomplish--with two important differences.  First, unlike 
NPR or PBS, we are NOT subsidized by the government; and second, 
unlike radio and television, our medium, telecomputing, is not yet 
as well established.

   We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which is funded 
completely by voluntary membership dues from the users of our 
community computer systems, corporate and foundation grants, 
individual donations, and other fund-raising activities.


Objectives

   NPTN has established specific objectives in three major areas:

   1. To assist organizers in cities throughout the U.S. and the
world in establishing free, open access, community computer
systems.  (For example: NPTN has established affiliates in five
U.S. cities, with another 10 cities scheduled to go online in the
next 12 months.)

   2. To link those systems together into a common network similar
to National Public Radio or PBS on T.V.  (For example: NPTN has
establish networkwide electronic mail and "cybercasting" services
to all affiliates.)

   (N.B. "Cybercasting" refers to the regular dissemination of
information and communication services to NPTN affiliates.  These
services function like network feeds in the radio and television
industry, where local station programming is supplemented on a
regular basis by high quality network programs.  Examples would
include: Project Hermes, U.S. Supreme Court Decisions; the
Congressional Memory, reports on legislation in Congress; USA
TODAY electronic news service, etc.)

   3. To establish networkwide special services and programs which
take advantage of the unique strengths of telecomputing as a
medium.  (For example: Academy One, our K-12 education network;
and the Teledemocracy Project.)


Organizational Status

   The National Public Telecomputing Network is an Ohio nonprofit
corporation, and has received 501(c)(3) tax exemption status from
the Federal Government.  While NPTN has its origins at Case
Western Reserve University, the two are separate and distinct
entities.

   NPTN is governed by a seven member Board of Directors and by an
Affiliate Council which consists of one delegate from each NPTN
system.  The Affiliate Council advises the corporation on matters
of policy and procedure and, each year, elects people to the Board
of Directors.  The current President and Chairman of the Board of
NPTN is its founder, Dr. Tom Grundner.

   NPTN is funded by voluntary membership dues from the users of
our community computer systems, corporate and foundation grants
and donations, and other fund-raising activities.


Background

   NPTN has its origins in a series of research projects conducted 
at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio.  

   The initial project began in the fall of 1984 when Dr. Tom 
Grundner, then of CWRU's Department of Family Medicine, set up a 
single phone line, computerized, "bulletin board" system called 
"St. Silicon's Hospital and Information Dispensary" to test the 
effectiveness of telecomputing as a means of delivering health 
information to the public.

   The heart of the system was an interactive area where lay 
people could call in using their home, school, or business 
computers, leave medically-related questions, and have them 
answered by a board certified family physician within 24 hours.  
The experiment proved so successful that it attracted the 
attention of the Information Systems Division of AT&T and the Ohio 
Bell Telephone Company, who supported a larger project to expand 
and develop this interactive concept.

   Based on these donations, Dr. Grundner began work on a full-
scale "community computer system" on an AT&T 3B2/400 computer with 
ten incoming phone lines.  The initial system was designed to 
serve as a community information resource in areas as diverse as 
law, medicine, education, arts, sciences, and government-- 
including free electronic mail services for the citizens of 
northeast Ohio.  On July 16, 1986, this system, called the "Free-
Net"   was opened by Ohio Governor Richard Celeste and Cleveland 
Mayor George Voinovich and the project was officially underway.

   Version I of the Cleveland Free-Net gathered over 7000 
registered users from throughout the Cleveland metropolitan area 
and handled between 500-600 calls per day.  In 1989, however, it 
moved into a second phase of development in a big way.

   A new system was designed around six IBM-RT (Model 135) 
computers which would be linked together so that, from the user's 
standpoint, they would appear as one big machine.  This new system 
would provide the Cleveland Free-Net with 96 megabytes of RAM (96 
million characters of Random Access Memory), over five gigabytes 
of hard disk storage (five billion characters of hard disk), and 
would be easily capable of supporting over 180 simultaneous users.

   In August, 1989 the Cleveland super-system opened on 48 phone 
lines--32 designated for the community, 16 for CWRU faculty and 
students--plus a connection to the Internet and to CWRU's fiber-
optic campus network called CWRUnet.  Within a year the system was
averaging well over 3000 logins a day... then 4000 a day... then
5000... until today the Cleveland Free-Net routinely hosts over 
6500 logins a day.

   One of the central tenets of the project from the very 
beginning was that, if we were successful, we would attempt to 
give the software and our methodology the widest possible 
dissemination.  With that goal in mind, in September 1989, the 
National Public Telecomputing Network was formed.

   In July, 1986 the Cleveland Free-Net went online.  In July, 
1987, the Youngstown Free-Net began operation.  In the first four 
months of 1990 we brought three more systems into the network: 
TriState Online in Cincinnati, Ohio; The Heartland Free-Net in 
Peoria, Illinois; and the Medina County Free-Net in Medina, Ohio-- 
our first rural system.

   From these beginnings, NPTN continues to develop and grow as 
the nation's first free public-access telecomputing network


The Concept of Community Computing

   The development of community computer systems represents a new 
application in computing.

   A multi-user computer is established at a central location and 
the machine is connected to the telephone system through a series 
of devices called modems.  Running on the machine is a computer 
program that provides its users with everything from electronic 
mail services to information about health care, education, 
technology, government, recreation, or just about anything else 
the host operators would like to place on the machine.

   Anyone in the community with access to a home, office, or 
school computer and a modem can contact the system 24 hours a day.  
They simply dial a central phone number, make connection, and a 
series of menus appear on the screen which allows them to select 
the information or communication services they would like.  All of 
it is free and all of it can easily be accomplished by a first- 
time user.

   The key to the economics of operating a community computer 
system is the fact that the system is literally run by the 
community itself.  Everything that appears on one of these 
machines is there because there are individuals or organizations 
in the community who are prepared to contribute their time, 
effort, and expertise to place it there and operate it over time.  
This, of course, is in contrast to the commercial services which 
have very high personnel and information-acquisition costs and 
must pass those costs on to the consumer.

   Couple this volunteerism with the rapidly-dropping costs of 
computing power, with the use of inexpensive transmission technology,
and public access computing becomes an economically viable entity.


A Civic Utility: Potential Impact on the Community

   Who, exactly, benefits from community computing? To cite just a 
few examples:

   * The Citizens of a Given Community: First and foremost, these 
community computer systems open up information services to very 
large populations that would otherwise not be able to afford it.  
The cost of utilizing a Free-Net community computer consists of 
the cost of having standard telephone service in the home, school, 
or business, plus the price of the equipment needed to get online.  
Minimum equipment is now well under $250 virtually anywhere, and 
that is assuming the person purchases new.  If a person wishes to 
attend a few garage sales, flea markets, or computer fairs, it 
could be considerably less.  With the addition of public access 
terminals in a city, anyone would be able to utilize one of these 
systems.

   * Public and Private Schools: Via community computers, school 
systems finally have a cost-effective way to teach telecomputing 
to their students, thereby sending a new generation of information-
literate citizens into the work force.  In addition, these systems 
allow students, teachers, parents, and administrators to 
communicate with each other and have access to information bases 
of interest and importance.

   * Government: Community computers provide citizens with an 
inexpensive and rapid way to make contact with their elected 
representatives at the city, county, state, and national levels--
contacts which include everything from obtaining information on 
governmental services to providing access to tax-payer supported, 
governmentally-produced databases.  It should also be pointed out 
that these communications are not one way.  Elected 
representatives and other officials also have the ability to 
electronically communicate with their constituents.

   * Small- and Medium-sized Businesses: Most major corporations 
have electronic mail and other computer-driven information 
services at their disposal.  Most small- and medium-sized 
businesses do not.  With a Free-Net system in place, these smaller 
enterprises are finally able to afford to link their operations 
together via Free-Net electronic mail services and have access to 
a variety of useful business databases--something that cannot help 
but improve the business infrastructure of any city.

   * The Agricultural Community: Among the segments in our society 
that were the first to embrace computing were our farmers.  The 
reason was obvious.  Farmers are business people too, but they 
have the disadvantage of, in general, being dispersed over wide 
geographic areas.  A Free-Net system in a central location in a 
county allows the agricultural community to access common 
information bases, share solutions to farm-related problems, 
access up-to-date crop and price information, and make electronic 
connection with the County Agent and each other--all without ever 
leaving home.

   * The Telecommunications and Videotex Industry: For years the 
commercial videotex industry has been dividing, sub-dividing, and 
sub-sub-dividing essentially the same "up-scale" demographic 
group: $50,000+ yearly household incomes, very well educated, 
overwhelmingly white, and overwhelmingly male.  If the industry is 
to survive and flourish, however, it is going to have to find a 
way to penetrate the middle class with its services.  Free-Net 
community computers do exactly that.  On the Cleveland system, for 
example, we draw as many users out of the demographically blue 
collar areas of the city as we do out of the wealthier sections.  
Demographic penetration such as this, on a nationwide basis, is 
vital if the telecomputing and videotex industry is to survive 
into the 21st century.  It is also important to the telephone 
industry, which has spent millions of dollars on "gateway" 
technology, that telecomputing flourish and that their services be 
used.

   * Community Organizations and Institutions: Each Free-Net is 
set up using an "Electronic City" motif.  That motif was not 
selected by accident.  To one degree or another, virtually every 
institution in society has an information dissemination function 
of some kind--a need to tell others about itself and share its 
knowledge.  The Free-Net makes it possible for any and all of them 
to utilize a new medium to accomplish that goal.  From artistic 
and cultural organizations to medical institutions to hobbyists of 
all kinds, all can find a place on a community computer.


The Greening of a Medium

   As a result our experience in working with and developing these 
systems, we have learned several very important things.

   First, it is clear that these community computers represent the 
leading edge of what can only be described as a new telecommunica-
tions medium.  Telecomputing is not radio, not television, not print, 
but has characteristics of all three plus additional ones all its own.
This fact alone will inevitably lead to developments and uses that
we cannot now even begin to imagine.

   Second, it is clear that a critical mass of people now exist 
who are prepared to utilize this new medium.  As more and more 
modem-equipped microcomputers penetrate the home and especially 
the work environment, the utility of public-access computerized 
information services goes up.

   And third, there is a certain sense of inevitability to the 
development of community computing.  Simply stated, we find 
ourselves unable to imagine a 21st century in which we do NOT have 
community computer systems, just as this century has had public 
libraries.  Moreover, we believe that the community computer, as a 
resource, will have at least as much impact on the next century as 
the public library has had on ours.

   The library analogy we just used is equally valid as an 
historical analogy.  In the latter part of the last century there 
was no such thing as the free public library, at least not as we 
know it today.  Eventually the literacy rate became high enough 
(and the cost of books became cheap enough) that the public 
library became feasible.  People in cities and towns all across 
the country banded together to make free public access to the 
printed word a reality.  The result was a legacy from which 
virtually every person reading this document has, at one point or 
another, benefited.

   We believe it is time to leave a legacy of our own.

   We believe we have reached the point where computer "literacy" 
has gotten high enough (and the cost of equipment low enough) that 
a similar demand has formed for free, public-access, computerized 
information systems.  Indeed, we believe we have reached a point 
where the question is no longer whether  it will happen; the 
question is "who" and "when."  Who will do it and when will it 
happen?

   The National Public Telecomputing Network exists to make free 
public access to computerized communications and information 
services a reality--to hand down a legacy to our children's 
children as great as the one handed to us.

______


For More Information

   If you would like to know more about NPTN and our work in 
developing community computer systems, please feel free to contact 
us at the following:

T.M. Grundner, Ed.D           Voice: (216) 368-2733
President, NPTN               FAX: (216) 368-5436
Box 1987                      Internet: info@nptn.org
Cleveland, Ohio  44106
(tmg@nptn.org)
-- 
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Tim Arnold                      Instructional Computing
Internet: arnold@stat.ncsu.edu  North Carolina State Univ.
BITNET  : ARNOLD@NCSUSTAT       Dept. of Statistics, Raleigh NC 27695
Phone   : 919 515 2584          FAX: 919 515 7591
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 
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Tim Arnold                      Instructional Computing
Internet: arnold@stat.ncsu.edu  North Carolina State Univ.
BITNET  : ARNOLD@NCSUSTAT       Dept. of Statistics, Raleigh NC 27695