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SFPROBE.TXT
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2006-10-19
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SPIN and PROBE
Bill Gaskill
June 1993
SPIN, an acronym for School Practices Information Network, and PROBE,
which may be an acronym, but I don't know for what, are two of the more
obscure Scott, Foresman products for the TI-99/4A. SPIN is an on-line
information service for educational institutions that first surfaced
for the 99/4A in January 1983. PROBE is a tool for teaching BASIC
programming that first surfaced for the 99/4A in August 1983. As far
as I can determine, the Apple version of PROBE actually exists, and
maybe versions for other computers, but I don't believe the 99/4A
version ever went to market. Scott, Foresman no doubt dumped the
project after TI's October 28th announcement to abandon the TI-99 Home
Computer.
SPIN:
The School Practices Information Network was a CompuServe-like series
of on-line educational data bases that Scott, Foresman purchased the
rights to distribute from BRS Services. Subscriptions to SPIN were
aimed at educational institutions ranging from elementary schools all
the way up to colleges and universities.
Services available to SPIN subscribers included access to educational
data bases containing over 11 million documents in 15 education
related areas such as:
- Educational Resources Information File,
- Bilingual Education Bibliographic Abstracts,
- Exceptional Child Education Resources,
- National Center of Educational Media and Materials for the
Handicapped,
- Resources in Vocational Education, and
- Resources in Computer Education.
Additionally, access to over 60 other inter-disciplinary data bases was
offered, as well as an electronic newslettter, an on-line directory of
other SPIN subscribers and Electronic Mail services.
SPIN subscriptions were sold by authorized Scott, Foresman and Company
dealers, not company salespeople. Scott, Foresman created an incentive
program for dealers that allowed them to collect 50% of the initial
subscription fee, then a percentage of the on-line charge for a minimum
of 6 years.
When a dealer sold a SPIN subscription, which were typically marketed
to an elementary school, a middle school or a high school, subscribers
were billed $150 by BRS Services. The dealer received $75 from that
fee. As the subscriber used SPIN, they were charged $18 per hour for
connect time, regardless of the services used during that connect time.
Of this, for six years following the sale of the subscription, the
dealer was paid $1.76 per hour.
Then, whenever the subscriber searched a SPIF (School Practices Info
File, one of the specific data bases listed above) data base, a $10 per
hour SPIF royalty fee was charged in addition to the connect time fees.
Of this, for the six year period following the sale of a subscription,
the dealer received $2.35 per hour. Thus a subscriber paid $28 per hour
to use the data bases, and $18 per hour to read the On-Line newsletter
or to use the Electronic Mail facilities. Whew! And we complain about
having to pay $7.95 per hour?
According to Scott, Foresman statistics, provided to them by BRS, a
dealer could expect to make $455.70 per subscriber over the six year
period, with typical subscriber use. Of course, the more the subscriber
used the services, the more money the dealer made.
SPIN subscriptions were also available to postsecondary educational
institutions such as colleges and universities, but the fees were
higher. It follows though, that the dealer's incentives were higher
too.
I have no idea if SPIN still exists today, but my guess is that it
would have had to change its pricing structure in order to stay in
business if so. I can't imagine anyone paying $28 per hour today, just
to search on-line data bases? However, as of early 1983 BRS claimed to
have over 3500 subscribers.
PROBE:
As I stated earlier, I don't believe PROBE for the TI-99/4A ever made
it to market. Nonetheless, there are some advertisements and other
tidbits of information you can find in a couple of our 99/4A specific
magazines that show it was at least planned for 99/4A release. For
example,
Publication Date Page
------------------------------- ----- ----
99er Home Computer Magazine 08/83 91
Enthusiast 99 11/83 18
Enthusiast 99 01/84 2
The January 1984 Enthusiast 99 ad is perhaps the most informative of
the lot because it shows the PROBE packaging and materials, but what is
displayed in the ad was created for the Apple computer. If you look
close you can see the "For Use with the Apple II Microcomputer" text
next to the COMPUTER COMMANDS line in the lower portion of the ad. The
same ad also tells the reader that PROBE is/was available for six
popular personal computers, but it doesn't list the names of those
computers.
The PROBE product was apparently available in four different age
levels, ranging from 5 years to adult. I assume that this had something
to do with the ability to read as much as anything else, plus the
ability to understand the concepts necessary to program a computer.
According to the information I have, which is extremely limited, the
PROBE package contained a student workbook, an instructor's edition,
screen grids, a wall chart and the PROBE program disk. Unfortunately, I
have no information on the price of the product. Hopefully some reader
of this article will be able to shed more light on this unique, but
obscure Scott, Foresman product.
=eof=