Today, activities such as visiting a library, mailing a letter or trading securities no longer need to be carried out in person; they can be handled using a computer and a modem. These tasks, along with many others, have been virtualized.
This is only the beginning. In the decades ahead more and more of our daily activities will find electronic analogs, until our lives are fully mirrored in the cavities of electronic networks. Virtual cities, virtual supermarkets, virtual concert halls; almost anything is possible.
Telecommunications technology will influence the way we are governed; where we live; what jobs we perform; what companies will falter, survive, and prosper; how and what we will be paid. Even if you have never used a computer and can't imagine why you'd want to, these changes will affect you, possibly in ways you won't like.
The premise of this guide is that only an educated public can ensure that this technology will be used appropriately. Unlike conventional media, the new telecommunications technologies make it as easy to communicate with politicians and to demand change, as to sit back and let their words wash over us; as easy to explore places thousands of miles away as to say hello to someone next door. However, all these possibilities do not come without responsibilities: to an extent greater than with any other medium, global computer networks depend on the contributions of people such as yourself.
People are needed to do research and provide their findings; to write software and offer it for use by others; to create and moderate conferences; to set up their own electronic fruit stands; to tutor others in the possibilities and responsibilities of the new media. More than anything else, the idea of "giving back" has made global networks what they are today.
The objective of this guide is to train responsible electronic citizens, people who ask not only "What can telecommunications do for me?" but also "What can we do together to ensure that this technology fulfills its promise?" That is why this guide discusses not only accessing information, but providing it; why we touch on many technologies and networks, rather than just one; why we talk about the past and the future rather than solely about the present; why we sometimes lecture as well as entertain.
If I did not believe that the addition of more educated contributors would add vitality and energy to global networks, I would not have written this guide. I believe that it will be possible not only to settle the Electronic Frontier, but to civilize it; not only to build a new information infrastructure, but in the process to retain the principles that have brought us this far.
One road is the Internet, developed over more than 20 years by computer scientists. The Internet architects began as graduate students waiting for the "network geniuses" to show up and tell them what to do (they never did). Today they are middle aged, distinguished, perhaps even celebrated, as close to "network geniuses" as we are likely to find. As the Internet moves into the 90s, their work merits recognition along with the most significant scientific advances of the twentieth century.
The Internet Protocols (TCP/IP) were designed to support a wide variety of networking technologies, and have been ported to many computers and operating systems. With an estimated 2 million hosts, over 15,000 networks, and an estimated 5 to 20 million users in more than 60 countries (as of August, 1993), the Internet is the world's largest computer network. It is doubling in networks, hosts, and traffic every year. While the development of the Internet has been partially funded by government, volunteers have also played an important role by developing much of the underlying software.
On the other road are store and forward networks such as UUCP and BITNET, as well as a plethora of bulletin board networks: FidoNet, RIME, FrEdMail, ILINK, Intelec, OneNet, InfoLink, SmartNet, North AmeriNet, WWIVNet, Alternet, Eggnet and RBBSNet, to name a few. These networks were typically created to provide networking functionality for a particular brand of computer, operating system, or bulletin board software. These networks now also connect millions of people and reach to the farthest corners of the globe, including countries that for economic or political reasons are not connected to the Internet.
To continue to handle the exploding demand and provide for new services such as multimedia, bulletin board networks need the global connectivity and cost effectiveness of the Internet. What is not quite as widely appreciated is that the Internet also needs the bulletin board networks.
This is not solely because of the potential for technology interchange. Innovations such as ZMODEM, QWK, ARC, ZIP and Remote Imaging Protocol (RIP) first appeared in the bulletin board world, and were later ported to UNIX. With development of TCP/IP compatible bulletin board packages, there are signs that the bulletin board world is warming up to TCP/IP. In time it is likely that the backbones of the bulletin board networks, which currently rely on store and forward technology, will make the transition to running over TCP/IP, much as BITNET and USENET have.
The importance of bulletin board networks lies more in their culture, a movement for the sharing of information much like the public library movement fathered by Benjamin Franklin. Global data highways are interesting largely because people have set up electronic fruit stands along the side of the road: databases, file archives, mailing lists, and conferences created and maintained in the spirit of enterprise and public service. The purpose of the bulletin board networks, which will survive no matter what technology they eventually choose, is to deliver the benefits of the telecommunications revolution to local communities.
In providing links to the Internet as well as access that is responsive to community needs and standards, bulletin board operators serve a role analogous to that of local newspapers, TV, or radio stations. With governments setting up bulletin boards to better serve the public, it is only a matter of time before bulletin boards become as important a fixture in our cities and towns as the public library.
As a vehicle of the telecommunications revolution, bulletin boards are the Model-T. They may not be as flexible, elegant, or powerful as we’d like, but the features and price are right, so they'll do until we understand the medium well enough to build something better. First, we’ve got to get people on the road.
Of course, before we can do that to any appreciable extent, we’ve got to have affordable local roads. This is the objective of the ToasterNet movement, which is catching on across the country. By pooling the purchasing power of local citizens, ToasterNets such as The Little Garden (TLG) and the New England Community Internet (NECI) are bringing about a revolution in the pricing of low-speed Internet connections. As ToasterNets spring up and begin to interconnect, they will constitute a power center rivaling that of the commercial service providers. Without ToasterNets, many bulletin boards could not afford Internet access, so it can be argued that ToasterNets are a vital part of the bulletin board movement. It is even conceivable that during the next several years, ToasterNets will cooperate to fund construction of a backbone.
Of course, computer networks are not perfect. Their governance is frequently anarchic, and the messages they carry are at times uncultured, ignorant, or even rude. In these respects they resemble eighteenth century pampleteers such as Thomas Paine. Since exposure to objectionable material is the price of freedom, we shall have to live with these limitations, using law and good sense to restore order when necessary.
More serious are the long-range problems that we cannot foresee. Just as the original automobile makers did not envisage smog-ridden Los Angeles, so too may we now find it hard to imagine the future discomforts of the Information Age, such as information overload, CyberPorn, CyberScams and CyberSmog.
Whatever the outcome, I can think of no better way to ensure the future of our society than by educating the public about the art and science of telecommunications. I can only hope that in the rush to build the global information infrastructure, the roadside fruit stands will not be hastily bulldozed to make way for information supermarkets.
