NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/org/mensa/8386

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-18 | 3.2 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!emory!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!jwp
From: [e-mail] (John Pierce)
Newsgroups: rec.org.mensa
Subject: Re: Net Access
Date: 19 Nov 1992 07:03:13 GMT
Organization: Chemistry Dept, UC San Diego
Lines: 46
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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NNTP-Posting-Host: chedccf0.ucsd.edu

[e-mail] (John Cooley) writes:
 > .... I'm constantly reminded by many from my local chapter that something
 > like 90% or more DO NOT have access to e-mail or Internet in any way ....

[e-mail] (John Pierce) writes:
 > In less than six months members in San Diego should have free access to
 > normal Internet mail and Usenet news.....

[e-mail] (Roxanne Rohmann) writes:
 > ... access is only a small portion of the problem....  *most* people simply
 > aren't computerized...

I remember when uucp barely existed outside Bell Labs, and Usenet didn't
exist; Arpanet access was a wistful dream for most us; 300-baud modems were
the best connectivity most of us had, if we had any at all.  I don't think
John Cooley's and Roxanne's statements will be true in ten years; perhaps
not in five.  As the price of computers, highspeed telephone lines, and
city/state/nation-wide fiber optic nets continue to drop, that access will
become available just like Usenet, Fidonet, et al, became available.  The
18-year olds I see are comfortable with computers; expect to use them; want
and expect access to the net.  It may be true now that most Mensans don't
have computers, have no concept of the benefits of the net, and don't want
either.  That won't be true of the next generation of members.

Personally, I believe/hope that giving local group members access, even though
it's only news and mail, will be perceived as a useful benefit by potential
Mensans in high school and college for whom we, as a group, have little other
attraction.  It will be an even greater attraction when we can provide full
Internet access - ftp, telnet, etc, as well as mail and news; I believe that
will come.  It would be easier under the aegis of "mensa.org", But that seems
to be precluded by the contract with CIS, and without that it is harder for
local groups, or members willing to act on a group's behalf, to arrange for
registration, nameservice, etc.  Harder, but not impossible; it *will* occur.
It's unfortunate that Mensa as an organization chose to be in the train of
that movement rather than the vanguard.  But that was only one of what I feel
have been several shortsighted computer-related  decisions in the last several
years, and it really doesn't matter much.  Lynn Dobbs, and others like him,
will continue to make the results of their money and effort available to other
members; I, and others like me, will continue to scrounge access and services
for other members.  We will do it because we feel that that is the way the
world should *be*; we enjoy the benefits of ready access to the Internet and
we want other Mensans to have them.  And time, technology, and the direction
of society are on our side (for once).

-- John W Pierce, Chemistry, UC San Diego
   [e-mail]