Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/I got a plan/Euro Art News

Text File | 1994-11-09 | 16KB | 376 lines

                NEWSLET

THE NESLETTER OF THE EUROPEAN COMPUTER NETWORK FOR THE ARTS
No. 1  September 1994


CONTENTS

1. The Arts on GreenNet comes of age
2. Tales from the Net: Part1
3. New networking partnerships for the Data Place
4. Saving Money: More fun than virtual reality
5. Michael Jack writes on achievements to date
   and his hopes for the furture
6. How it all started: Dragan Klaic talked to David Hughes
7. European contact details


THE ARTS ON GREENNET COMES OF AGE

The European Computer Network for the Arts (originally referred to as Arts
on GreenNet), was initiated in the UK by Dragan Klaic of the Netherlands
Theatre Institute, Michael Jack and GreenNet, the London-based member of
the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), in July 1993.
Dragan felt that the global network of the APC could be useful in helping
to build an arts network along similar grounds. Since then GreenNet has
provided the technology, support and skill necessary to start the network.

The UK section of the arts network intends to continue to collaborate with
GreenNet in sharing resources but at the same time developing its own
information and technological base.

In the course of one year the founding members of Arts on GreenNet have
grown to more than 90. The membership consists of arts centres,
organisations, publications, information resources and individual artists.
Institutions such as the Institute for Conte mporary Arts and The Data
Place, the Community Radio Association and individuals such as Bernard
Heslin (visual artist) and John L Walters (musician) are all using Arts on
GreenNet to communicate, collaborate and create. In Europe organisations
such as IETM, the Vlaams Theatre Institute, Netherlands Theatre Institute,
AMARC Europe (Community radio) and offices of the ITI have joined
enthusiastically.

Since January 1994 a Working Group of representatives from UK arts
organisations has been providing the user feedback information and
guidance necessary to create a realistic and useful arts network. This
initial phase has been Arts Council funded. The range of organisations and
individuals represented on the Working Group gives an indication of the
diversity of this growing cross-media network. Mik Flood (Director of the
ICA), Clare Lovett (Director of The Data Place), Jeremy Rees (IVAIN) Ian
Stewart (Arts Council Literature Department), Jackie Friend (Arts
Marketing Consultant), Dick McCaw (International Workshop Festival), David
Hughes (Live Art Magazine), Chris Martin (Community Radio Assoc.), Viv
Kendon (Co-ordinator of GreenNet) Marianne de Vl ieg (Dance Services and
IETM), Kate Tindal (London International Festival of Theatre), Rob Eastop
(National Artists Association) and Jennifer Edwards (National Campaign for
the Arts).

The current developments and the momentum of this group make it ideal to
form the basis for the expansion and promotion of the emergent European
Computer network for the Arts, and the Working Group are currently
advising on the preparation of a series of funding proposals to develop
the network over the next three years, when, it is hoped, it will become
self-supporting financially.

Arts on GreenNet was the first network to seriously consider the needs and
potential of the full arts network, and will be a significant point of
reference to other emerging regional networks. See page 4 for a list of
local access points to the Europe-wide network.


TALES FROM THE NET: PART 1
E-mail from John L Walters, editor of Unknown Public.

I signed up to GreenNet without a clear idea of what it would do for me -
just a notion it would help me to run my magazine. I wanted to connect to
the Internet, and GreenNet seemed like a friendly point of entry.

My first sense of what it could do came from sending and receiving mail.
An American composer who had an e-mail address on his letterhead, had just
sent a DAT tape of a new work to Unknown Public. So, very gingerly, I
fired up my computer and sent him a n ote of acknowledgement. It was my
first e-mail, and I made a terrible hash of it. (The software Im using
turns my comfortable, friendly Mac into a stern PC, all arcane characters
and fidgety code.) But I logged on later that day and was thrilled to
discov er a reply. The speed of communication by e-mail still seems
science fiction to me. Its like dropping a letter out of the window - and
finding a reply posted down the chimney the same day.

A few days ago I posted a note asking for the address of US composer Tod
Machover in a conference called rec.music.compose, (which features
intelligent discussions/raging arguments about 20th century counterpoint
and what inspires you to compose, etc.). The next time I logged on there
were two fresh e-mail notes, from people Id never heard of, with addresses
and fax numbers. So I posted a note to Tod asking for permission to use
his vocal piece Flora in the next edition of Unknown Public - The Human
Voice . Now Ive just got home from a concert to find a friendly note from
Tod giving his blessing, with all sorts of information about other pieces
and recordings hes doing. In fact to be sure I got it, he sent the same
letter by fax.  He's an old Internet hand - maybe hes learnt not to rely on
it too much. I wonder if Live Art Magazine ever got that note about my
invoice...?


NEW NETWORKING PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE DATA PLACE
Director, Clare Lovett Writes:

The Data Place is one of the elements of a UK network of dance agencies
funded by The Arts Council of England. It has a critical role in
networking dance information which will assist many areas of the dance
world in finding performance opportunities, auditions, workshops,
festivals and venues. One of its key roles is to provide a link between
the UK and other countries in Europe.

The emergence of the Electronic Arts Network has been a real boost to our
activities in the exchange of accurate dance information. We have made
many new partners through the network and will be working on The European
Venues and Festivals Guide and InTO, the directory of professional
training opportunities. These partnerships will crucially, help to
decrease the amount of duplication of data inputting.

We work with a Macintosh system and the connection with GreenNet has been
very smooth. I await with great anticipation the development, for the
Macintosh, of an OLR (off-line reader, which allows most of the work to be
done whilst not connected through the phone line). This will drastically
cut the time spent on-line, especially important when looking for
information in databases.


SAVING MONEY: FOR FUN THAN FIRTUAL REALITY!
Live Art Magazine's Editor, David Hughes, writes about his Damascus Road.

Live Art Magazine has always been interested in new electronic technology
and the possibilities offered by Internet connection were appealing. At
the beginning, GreenNet did not offer easy connection to the Internet, and
the trawling and surfing I was able to do mainly lead to a less than
riveting conversation with some techno-nerd mathematician at an obscure
Arizona university. Not strictly GN' s fault, of course.

Having got past that phase, I began to realise the day to day working
potential of connection to the network. We are constantly moving lumps of
text around between writers, myself at the office, our designer and
administrator who all do most of their work from home. Now, rather than
using the time-consuming fax we send raw copy, proofs and finished artwork
by e-mail.  Each issue of the magazine is put into a simple text format
and posted at a computer site where it is accessible to anyone on the
Internet who wants to download it. This gives us a potential global
readership (the magazine can be downloaded using ftp or gopher from:
wolfnet.com).

The most tangible value of our account with GreenNet was made clear to us
when we did a major promotion. GreenNet offers a fax service that could
send a document to any quantity of fax numbers. We gave GreenNet the list
of numbers, they organised them into suitable groups and we simply sent
out one piece of e-mail through GreenNet which was faxed to all the
attached numbers in the dead of cheap rate night.

We had a terrific response to this fax-out in new subscribers and the
volume of information that came in. We now spend a lot less time Internet
surfing and a lot more time thinking about ways of increasing our
usefulness and influence through the electronic media.


MICHAEL JACK WRITES ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE AND HIS HOPES FOR THE
FUTURE

The last year has produced some delightful, and often forward-thinking
concerning this project. Visions of the future with intravenous email or
virtual massage have punctuated an often difficult growth path. There have
been other just as exciting but more immediately achievable visions.
There are too many to mention them all here but a couple deserve a
viewing: a collaboration between the European Network of Information
Centres for the Performing Arts and 1 Button (a software company) to
create software for automatically sending Venue and Festival updates to a
main database via GreenNet. The software will now be used as a basis for
an Off Line Reader for the network. A project that is in the pipeline is a
collaboration between Arts on GreenNet and ArtsNet Australia to create a
Global Events Calendar. The calendar will enable any event, such as
festivals and tour dates to be accessed by arts professionals all over the
world.

Although Arts on GreenNet was ostensibly started by performing arts
professionals it is encouraging to see that interest in the project has
quickly spread to other arts media. Professionals from Community
Broadcasting, Photography, Music, Live Art, the Print Media, Visual Art
and even Architecture are taking part in Arts on GreenNet. A point that
augers well for the future of the European Computer Network for the Arts.


HOW IT ALL STARTED
Dragan Klaic talked to David Hughes

In a telephone conversation, Dragan Klaic, Director of the Netherlands
Theatre Institute, told me how the idea of using GreenNet to provide an
electronic communications medium came about: I was using the
Amsterdam-based electronic network ArtNet in the late 80s, as an essential
tool in editing the magazine Euromaske. ArtNet was a small BBS used by
Dutch performing arts professionals, individuals and organisations.  But
it was expensive be cause it involved making long distance calls from
Belgrade, where there was no local access, to Amsterdam.

When I came to Amsterdam to take up my present post, I started to explore
the possibilities of making the substantial holdings of information on the
NTI database available to distant users. We were packaging the information
on paper, in books and annuals , but that was expensive and had a short
shelf life. I collaborated with ONDA and the Vlaams Theatre Institute to
circulate information on diskette and we developed our venue and
international festival guides on that medium. But the diskette was only an
interim medium between paper and the electronic media.

Performing arts professionals need easy, cheap access to constantly
updated information, but the whole process of communication and access, to
a great many people, can be a painful subject.

After researching the field, I approached GreenNet in London as an
organisation that would be congruent with the arts world because of its
interest in environmental and human issues. It has an international
outlook, combines hi and low technology, deals with cultural diversity
and is non-profit making.

Dutch ArtNet never acquired a critical mass of users.  I tried to get the
IETM membership to use it for e-mail, in 1990-91, but it was too early.
The problem was that ArtNet was a small operation. GreenNet has the clear
advantage of being part of the large organisation APC.  Its technical
developments mean you can be on any e-mail system or network and your
message will find its addressee wherever they are in the world. Local
access is possible in most European countries through GreenNet and the
other European members of the APC. The Internet has seen an explosive
growth development, it is big and decentralised. But GreenNet is a kind of
spearpoint and knowledge generator amongst the performing arts crowd. So
perhaps e-mail can now be used in other ways, with GreenNet responding by
training and answering other specific needs.  GreenNet will help create
possibilities and the transfer of knowledge to spread the utilisation of
e-mail.  GreenNet is a network helping professional networks in the field
work more efficiently, giving them a chance to communicate cheaply amongst
themselves.

Amongst the IETM members we have recently seen a rapid growth in e-mail
users. There are three important levels we must get through: the first is
simply communication. Secondly, there is conferencing, stimulating debate
and reflection on a European level. And thirdly, the most sophisticated
level, is access to databases. We made the first two, the third is yet to
come. Arts professionals need fresh, cheap information and I can't
imagine a better way of doing that than computer networking.


Please contact an address below to join the European Computer Network for
the Arts:


EUROEPAN COMPUTER NETWORK FOR THE ARTS
CO-ORDINATION
Michael Jack - Network Co-ordinator
393-395 City Road,
London, EC1V 1NEU, UK
Tel:  [phone]
Fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

BELGIUM
Knoopunt  - Snoekstraat 52
B-9000 Gent
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Daniel Verhoeven

CROATIA
Zamir - Tkalciceva
3841000, Zagreb
Tel. [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Srdjan Dvornik

CZECH REPUBLIC
Econnect - Ceskomalinska
23160 00 , Praha 6
Tel.  [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact:  Vasek Klinkera

FRANCE
GlobeNet - 5 Rue Buot
Paris 75013
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]
Contact: Assad Kondjaki

GERMANY
Comlink - Emil-Meyer-Str. 20
D-30165, Hannover
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Udo Schacht-Wiegand

IRELAND
Toppsi - 20 Mirk St
Dublin 2
Tel: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]
Contact: Martin Maguire

NETHERLANDS
Antenna - Box 1513
NL-6051 BM, Nijmegen
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Michael Polman

RUSSIA
Glasnet - Ulitsa Sadovaya-Chernograizskayadom 4,
Komnata 16, Third Floor
107078 , Moscow
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Oxana Kovalevskaya

SERBIA
Zamir - Kralja Petra
4611000, Belgrade
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Miroslav Hristodulo

SLOVENIA
Histria - Ziherlova
4361, Ljubljana
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]

SPAIN
Pangea - C/O Gran Capita,
s/n UPC, Dep AC, Edif D6,
Campus Nord
E-08071, Barcelona
Tel: [phone]
email:[e-mail]
Contact: Leandro Navarro

SWEDEN, NORWAY,
FINLAND, DENMARK
NordNet - Huvudskarsvagen 13
nb.S-12154, Johanneshov
Sweden
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Bo Engborg

UKRAINE
GLUK - 14b Metrologicheskaya str.
Kiev, 252143
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Nick Makovsky

UK
GreenNet - 393-395 City Road
London,  EC1V 1NE
Tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
Contact: Michael Jack

OTHER EX-YUGOSLAVIAN COUNTRIES
Zamir - 10 Eric Milch Str. 83
32120 Hiddenhausen
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]

ALL OTHER COUNTRIES PLEASE CONTACT THE ARTS NETWORK COORDINATION (Address
at top)