Received: from devnull.harbornet.com (devnull.harbornet.com [199.2.132.12]) by adrift.harbornet.com (8.6.5/8.6.5) with SMTP id XAA04771 for ; Fri, 2 Aug 1996 23:47:07 GMT Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 23:47:07 GMT Message-Id: <199608022347.XAA04771@adrift.harbornet.com> X-Sender: ken@harbornet.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: ken@harbornet.com From: Tom Newell (by way of ken@harbornet.com (ken lombardi)) Subject: InterNIC News, Vol 1 Issue 5 Status: O X-Status: InterNIC News August 1996 Volume 1, Issue 5 editor@internic.net In this issue: * From the Editor * The 15 Minute Series: Tools for Internet Trainers * The JASON Project: A Virtual Learning Experience * Scout Services Update: Y'Know: A Web Report for Students, by Students * InterNIC Status Report: Bulletin on InterNIC's Invoicing Process * End User's Corner: Cautionary Tales from the INET Conference * User Feedback * Get the InterNIC News * Using this Material --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From the Editor By Julie Robichaux, InterNIC Support Services --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This month the InterNIC News profiles the latest InterNIC Support Services effort, the 15 Minute Series. Robin Murphy, NIC Liaison Assistant, describes the project's goals and discusses ways in which the Internet community can contribute to this collaborative effort. Rich Landers takes a look at the JASON Project, which combines human innovation--Internet technology--with human nature--the natural curiosity of schoolchildren. Tom Newell, NIC Liaison, writes: The InterNIC is pleased to announce the hosting of ROADMAP96, an email-based Internet tutorial authored by Patrick Crispen and consisting of 27 lessons. ROADMAP96 is an Internet training workshop designed to teach new "Net travelers" how to travel around the rapidly expanding (and often-times confusing) "Information Superhighway" without getting lost. The original Roadmap workshop, which debuted in the Fall of 1994, rapidly became the most popular on-line Internet training workshop in history. ROADMAP96 is a completely revised and updated version of the original Roadmap workshop. The workshop has been enormously successful but has only been available sporadically. Working together with Patrick, the InterNIC will launch a new workshop series every two weeks providing an Internet-based training vehicle which has received such praise as: "If you're looking for a free, easy way to learn a lot about the Internet, look no further." --The Washington Post, 4/6/95 "We've seen no more comprehensive and user-friendly demystification of the Net, or how to use it, anywhere." --The Detroit Monthly, 1/1/95 Best Stuff for Beginners --Internet World, 1/96 (The Best and Worst of the 1995) Patrick has a unique style and remarkable ability to take a difficult topic and describe it in language at once instructional as well as entertaining. To be a part of the next ROADMAP96 workshop session -- new sessions start every two weeks -- just send an e-mail letter to LISTSERV@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET with the command SUBSCRIBE ROADMAP96 YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME in the body of your e-mail letter, replacing YOURFIRSTNAME and YOURLASTNAME with your first and last names. Over the next few weeks, the InterNIC will make available the entire workshop in HTML form. Watch for details on our WWW site at the URL: http://rs.internic.net/roadmap96 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 15 Minute Series: Tools for Internet Trainers By Robin Murphy, InterNIC Support Services --------------------------------------------------------------------------- You inform the undergraduate standing in front of you at the reference desk that the housing statistics she needs are available via the World Wide Web, and write down the URL. She stares at you blankly. "What's a URL?" she asks. A faculty member asks you to present an overview of the Internet's history and evolution for a group of graduate students studying information policy tomorrow afternoon. Your library reference staff will be working in partnership with the university's computing services department on a networking initiative and you need to get the staff to a point where they are conversant with networking technology and standards terminology. The Internet training materials that your staff developed were cutting-edge... six months ago. Thanks to changes in the technology, they are now out of date, and as for keeping them current, well, your staff is out of time. Sound familiar? As the amount of information and data stored, disseminated, and retrieved via the Internet grows, so does the need for education in the methods and tools employed by networked medium. Individuals on the front lines of information exchange - librarians, computer services departments, faculty, information resource managers, et cetera - are traditionally the ones who find themselves faced with this demand for Internet education. Seldom, however, is this increase in responsibility accompanied by an increase in resources available for the task of user education. To add to the dilemma, the Internet is anything but static. Technology changes by the hour, simultaneously creating new demands and rendering existing training materials and knowledge out of date. As a result, the educational needs of end-users, as well as the intermediaries who serve them, are both persistent and dynamic. Further, the increasing role of the Internet in organizational operations places many demands which have nothing to do with education on libraries, computer and information technology staff, and others. End-user Internet training is often cited as one of the first activities to fall by the wayside in the face of more pressing concerns, many of which are also the result of the Internet's growing presence in the organization's information infrastructure. The InterNIC and LITA, the Library and Information Technology Association, a division of the American Library Association, recognize both the demand for end-user education and the added responsibilities that accompany the Internet's growing presence in the community. To assist those faced with meeting these needs, we are pleased to announce our partnership on the 15 Minute Series, a collection of modular, extensible Internet training materials for the Internet trainer, scheduled for public release in late August. Look for the official announcement of availability at the InterNIC's Support Services Web page (http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/), LITA's Web site (http://www.lita.org/), on mailing lists, and academic and trade journals. So what is the 15 Minute Series? The 15 Minute Series is a collection of training modules designed to provide "15-minute" sessions on specific Internet topics. Each training module is actually a mini-presentation on a particular Internet topic. These training modules will be available via the Web in both HTML and Microsoft PowerPoint, and the Web site will offer trainers both browse and search options for identifying modules on a particular topic. Each module is structured using a question and answer approach: asking a clearly defined question and providing a concise, yet complete answer. This technique allows the modules to present and explain specific concepts, developing them as discrete units of information. Trainers can then use a module by itself, in conjunction with other modules, or as part of a broader collection of Internet training materials, depending on the scope of the training task at hand. All training modules follow a consistent presentation outline. Each module will consist of between 4 and 8 "slides." The first slide presents the question and provides an answer in outline form; the following slides develop the points provided in the outline; and the final slide summarizes the presentation in narrative form. The task of explaining network technology, protocols, and tools to the new user is daunting, and frequently requires the trainer to couch concepts in terms the user already understands. Graphics also help the user grasp complex concepts by providing a visualization of the technology and processes underlying a particular Internet topic. The 15 Minute Series recognizes the importance of images and analogies as training tools, and will incorporate both as regular elements in its training modules. As graphics add considerably to the size of the file and download time, however, they will be chosen carefully and used only when appropriate and necessary. Initially, each module will be available in both HTML and Microsoft PowerPoint, so that Internet trainers have the option of using the training modules in either a networked or non-networked environment. With the PowerPoint modules, trainers will have a portable training resource that can be used on stand alone machines and in a variety of other situations without network access. The PowerPoint versions also will offer freedom from the worries that network performance and connectivity can pose for trainers who use the network as a delivery mechanism for Internet training sessions. The HTML versions are provided so that trainers who want to use the PowerPoint versions may preview the modules before downloading. The HTML version of a module will be identical (except for minor formatting points) to the PowerPoint version. Beyond this preview function, however, the HTML versions of the modules also will present trainers with a powerful, Web-based training resource. One of the principle objectives of the 15 Minute Series is to provide trainers with a resource that is ready to use "as is." Toward this end, factors which vary from one situation to the next - access methods, platforms, etc. - will be acknowledged but not addressed in detail when describing an Internet topic, so that the module will be able to convey its message regardless of a particular user's or trainer's environment. The 15 Minute Series modules, however, are designed to be extensible. The particulars of an end-user's situation, which are often critically important to their understanding of a topic, can be addressed by extending the module to include issues such as access methods, platforms, and specific client software encountered in their particular situation. Trainers are welcome to download HTML and PowerPoint templates and, using these guidelines, develop additional "slides" that address their users' local environments. To assist trainers with locating modules on topics they are interested in, the modules will be grouped in broad categories for browsing. These categories include areas such as Internet History, The Basics, Technology, Internet Organizations, Electronic Mail, The World Wide Web, Indexing and Search Services, and The Future. Internet trainers looking for materials may browse each of these categories either by title, author, or the date added to the collection. Whenever appropriate, modules will be cross-listed under all relevant categories to facilitate trainers' access to the materials. For example, "What is the World Wide Web?" would be indexed under both The Basics and The World Wide Web categories; "What is JAVA?" would appear under both The World Wide Web and Technology. Can't find what you're looking for? No problem. The 15 Minute Series website also offers a cross-category search mechanism. Perhaps one of the most important features of the 15 Minute Series, however, will be its currency. As technology breaks new ground, training materials, and trainers, need to keep up to date and reflect these changes if they are to provide a real service. With this in mind, the existing modules in the 15 Minute Series will be reviewed and updated on a rotating, six-month schedule, based on the date they were added to the collection. Of course, a lot can happen in six months. In view of the dynamic nature of technology, the InterNIC and LITA also invite the community to notify our staff of changes, corrections, or new information either via e-mail or via the feedback form that will be available at the 15 Minute Series Web site. Our staff will work to revise the modules as appropriate to reflect the most current and correct information. Grab your own "15 Minutes" of fame! Help us develop the 15 Minute Series While the InterNIC provides staff dedicated to developing, managing, and updating the 15 Minute Series, contributions to the collection from the research and education community will be not only welcome, but strongly encouraged and expected. The InterNIC and LITA recognize that many in the research and education community have extensive experience in supporting Internet end-users within their organizations, and consequently have valuable insights into what works, what is needed, and how to address varying degrees of technical knowledge among end-users. Therefore, we believe that the research and education community has much to contribute, in terms of both content and style, to the 15 Minute Series. We expect that, as this community makes use of the 15 Minute Series, they will build upon it and extend its scope in ways worthy of sharing. We will be issuing a call for participation, inviting members of the community to prepare modules for publication as part of the 15 Minute Series collection. The call for participation will identify specific topics for module development; requests to contribute may be sent to the joint InterNIC/LITA editorial board for consideration. Topics will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis to qualified contributors. Once a module has been completed and submitted, the joint InterNIC/LITA editorial board will review the module for technical accuracy, user friendliness, and compliance with established style guides and templates before publication. More details on contributing to the 15 Minute Series, including specific guidelines for contributors, style guides, and templates, will be forthcoming. Look for announcements and our call for participation soon on the InterNIC's Support Services Web page (http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/_, LITA's Web site (http://www.lita.org/), in the InterNIC News (http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/nicnews), in the LITA Newsletter (http://www.harvard.edu/litanews), and on mailing lists! Whether you choose to contribute or not, you can still help us develop the 15 Minute Series by providing feedback and suggestions. The InterNIC and LITA are eager to provide a resource that serves the community's needs, and one of the best ways to do that is to ask the community what it needs. If you would like to see modules on a particular topic, new features added, or encounter any problems with our materials, we want to hear from you. You can contact us via e-mail by sending a message to 15min@internic.net or, after the public release, via the feedback form at the 15 Minute Series Web site. The future looks bright! The 15 Minute Series will initially provide a small core set of 20 training modules developed for the project's public release. This collection is expected to grow considerably in the coming weeks and months as the InterNIC continues to develop training materials and modules are contributed by the research and education community. These 20 initial training modules represent only the beginning of the 15 Minute Series as a resource for Internet trainers. As the InterNIC and LITA move forward with the project, we will be investigating other services and features to enhance and improve the overall utility of the 15 Minute Series for the research and education community. Such features might include the development or adoption of a glossary of Internet and networking technology, a collection of useful analogies for use in training sessions, and a library of images that can be used when creating modules. In addition, once the collection has matured and grown in size and scope, we are considering the possiblity of creating special "tracks" for target audiences. One feature that we do intend to develop is suggested curricula. These curricula will combine and extend existing modules to construct training sessions specific to either a particular topic, timeframe, or other unique situation. For example, a two-hour presentation on Internet history and evolution, to use an example from the beginning of this article, could be created by selecting modules from the Internet History, Internet Organizations, Technology, and Basics categories and then preparing speaker's notes and handouts to accompany the modules. In another example, a presentation on government resources available via the Internet could provide an overview of the basic tools and protocols using modules from the Basics, and then combine these with additional modules created to describe specific resources, such as GPO Access or LOCIS at the Library of Congress. We envision the research and education community as playing a strong role in the development of this feature. There are many such possibilities that can be explored as we move forward with the project. We view the development of the 15 Minute Series as open-ended, and we are eager to hear feedback that will assist us in furthering the potential of the project. We at InterNIC and LITA are pleased to announce our partnership in this venture and look forward to working with the research and education community to shape this project into a powerful training and information resource that meets the needs of this community, both today and tomorrow. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The JASON Project: A Virtual Learning Experience By Rich Landers, InterNIC Support Services --------------------------------------------------------------------------- All of us at InterNIC Support Services enjoy reaching out to the K-12 community by profiling innovative classroom uses of the Internet in our newsletter. The Internet's innumerable resources provide a stimulating environment for our younger generation, and learning to use Internet technology will benefit them greatly throughout their lives, no matter what interests they eventually pursue. But acquiring the skill to use the Internet as a learning tool is not easy, and we're often reminded that classroom instructors are faced not only with the challenge of learning new Internet technologies, but also with the challenge of how to use the Internet in the classroom. The JASON Project seeks to expose the instructors to the Internet by training them to use the JASON curriculum; from there, the teachers introduce the students to the JASON curriculum with a variety of exercises that use the Internet, among other forms of media, to guide students through a comprehensive research project. During the research project, students are encouraged to research the JASON archives for information, and they learn that in a short time they can locate an astonishing amount of information relating to their project. Additionally, they will learn the benefits of collaboration by conducting information exchange with other students from around the world to further enhance their own investigation. The JASON Project The JASON Project began as the dream of Dr. Robert Ballard, discoverer of the RMS TITANIC wreckage. Dr. Ballard wanted to bring the excitement of an expedition and discovery into the classroom, and now his dream has been brought to life through a unique partnership between the public and private sectors. The mission of the JASON Foundation for Education is to use advanced interactive telecommunications to excite and engage students in science and technology and to motivate and provide professional development opportunities for their teachers. Through this technology, the JASON Foundation for Education is making science more accessible, more exciting, and more real to students and teachers around the world. Using the Internet, students participate in an annual scientific expedition. This "electronic field trip" begins with teachers participating in workshops to learn about the interdisciplinary curriculum endorsed by the National Science Teachers Association. They then involve their students in the expedition by conducting experiments and exercises, using the Internet to search for and gather information. Students exchange data with each other over the Internet and view classroom broadcasts for more information about the expedition. During a two-week period, students can join scientists and technicians at the expedition site through the Internet, their classrooms, or specially equipped auditoriums where they can "drive" scientific vehicles underwater or on land. JASON Online Systems You don't need direct access to the Internet to use the JASON curriculum, but the curriculum emphasizes the role of the Internet as a communications tool, and several investigations involve experiments that can be enhanced by using Internet tools and the three JASON Online Systems components: JASON News and Discussion Groups, the JASON Project Gopher, and the JASON Project Home Page. Scientists use the Internet in their research to communicate, collaborate, and share resources, and JASON students will use the Internet to communicate with other students and take part in collaborative investigations that relate to each major scientific topic in the program. The JASON Student Discussion Group, maintained by the Global Schoolnet Foundation, functions as a publication space for student work. The focus questions in each "investigation" provide a framework for student discussion. Since many of the focus questions are open-ended, students are encouraged to post their answers online for other students to consider. Online activities are being designed for a variety of Internet tools and protocols, with an emphasis on using the right tool for the right job. At the same time, the JASON Project is working to ensure access for the greatest number of users. Most JASON online investigations require e-mail, but in some cases additional resources or activities require the use of graphics or access to online forms that are only available on the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, most teachers do not have Internet access in their classrooms. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that approximately 50% of schools have access to the Internet; but only 9% of instructional rooms (classrooms and computer labs) are connected. In many cases, the connection is in the school's library or an administrative office. This means that in order to take part in online activities teachers will have to develop a strategy to make the most of limited Internet access. To overcome the problem of limited access, the JASON project emphasizes that successful online communications between students should be quality-oriented, rather than quantity. If many people contribute small pieces of work, the volume of material will be great. Consequently, students do not necessarily need to have daily access to the Internet in order to participate in online investigations. They can spend time off-line, working through local curriculum experiments and thinking about focus questions, then go online to "upload" their work and browse the discussions posted by other students. Technically, this can be accomplished by having students compose messages off-line and save them to a disk to be uploaded later. If Internet access in the classroom is not possible, a teacher or faculty member can go online periodically to print out new material to hand out to students. If many classes at a school are participating in JASON and sharing an Internet connection, a single person can be designated as the "Internet Liaison" to download information periodically, and make it available to everybody else. JASON in Action The JASON Project reaches approximately 2 million students in the U.S., Mexico, Bermuda, and the UK through a combination of curriculum, online resources, classroom broadcasts, and live telepresence events. The most concentrated activity is in areas where we have Primary Interactive Network Sites (PINS --currently 27 institutions that host live telepresence broadcasts); however, that is changing as new delivery systems become available. The online component has dramatically expanded the reach of the project. For instance, this year the Aquatic Field Study project (http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov:80/jason_scripts/afs_sites.pl) saw participants from Italy, Iceland, New Zealand, and several of the Pacific Islands. The Aquatic Field Study is a typical example of how the JASON Project uses the Internet to expand a student's knowledge base. The questions are relatively difficult ("How do you measure the biotic and abiotic [living and nonliving] characteristics of an aquatic site to gain an understanding of how the habitat operates?"), but the Internet resources provided in the curricula guide the students to the answers. For example, in the case of the Aquatic Field Study students could reference the following resources via the Internet, just to name a few: * Vocabulary used in the Investigation * Background information and Research Article * The Hydrology Web * The Coastal Ecosystems Program * National Water Conditions In addition to these provided resources, an assortment of online tools are furnished so that student-researchers can select collaborators, see previous aquatic field investigation reports, and submit their research findings from field work for review by other participants. Evaluations show that the JASON Project is having a positive effect on students' attitudes toward science. Also, many teachers are becoming less reluctant to teach about technology. This marks a turn, and now the JASON Project is introducing technology into the professional development programs for teachers. Giving people good Internet activities to do and learn with has been a big part of that. Other challenges that have been overcome include the logistics of running a major field research program. One of the greatest of these challenges was in 1991 when 10 days before our expedition in the Galapagos was to begin, the barge carrying most of our equipment sank in 9,000 feet of water. The JASON Foundation worked with the U.S. and Ecuadorian governments and JASON sponsors and supporters worldwide to replace the necessary equipment in order for the broadcasts to begin on time. The JASON Project Funding The JASON Project enjoys the support and expertise of a unique alliance of public, private, and non-profit organizations. Support is donated from sponsor organizations such as EDS, National Geographic Society, Sun Microsystems, Sprint, Eastman Kodak, and Bechtel. In addition, the expeditions are usually supported by in-kind resources from various government agencies, including the U.S. Navy (for the NR-1 submarine and its support ship), NOAA (for the Aquarius underwater laboratory), and NASA. The Project is also supported through fees for some of the educational materials (program fees from institutions that receive the broadcasts, sale of curricular materials, videos, etc.). The JASON Project has also received some grant support from private foundations. JASON into the Future JASON will continue to explore new modes of delivering programs directly into classrooms. Project coordinators are beginning to work with several State Departments of Education to get JASON adopted for entire states. The idea is to help develop state distance learning initiatives to deliver teacher professional development programming as well as a combination of student oriented curriculum, video and interactive online programming to schools. Conclusion The JASON Project is especially appealing because it combines the best of human innovation (Internet technology and electronic collaboration) with the best of human nature (the desire to understand and protect our fragile ecosystem). The Internet, in other words, does not have to be an enticement away from nature to technology, but rather an enticement to discover nature through technology. As the new school year swiftly approaches, JASON will gear up for another blockbuster year inside the classroom, and on expedition. JASON VIII will compare over 600,000 years between two geologically unique locations on Earth-Iceland and Yellowstone. For further information about the JASON curriculum, contact Todd Viola (todd@jason.org) or Gene Carl Feldman (gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Y'Know: A Web Report for Students, by Students By Susan Calcari, Net Scout Services --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fall is just around the corner, so it's time to be watching for a new publication from Net Scout Services, called _Y'Know_, a bi-weekly report about useful Web sites produced by K-12 students as a resource to other K-12 students. While the publication of Y'Know* will be facilitated by the Net Scout project, the real work will be done by the students themselves who will select and annotate all resources included in every issue of Y'Know. Students as Publishers The Y'Know newsletter is an ongoing, cooperative project of 2 classrooms in the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, and 2 classrooms in the Madison Metropolitan School District in Madison, Wisconsin. In fact, students from all 4 classrooms will collaborate to determine the Selection Criteria to be used to assure that all sites included in each issue are "quality" sites. The Selection Criteria discussion will begin with such questions as "Who is the audience of Y'Know?" and "What determines "appropriateness" of a site?" The students will also collaborate to determine a set of Annotation Guidelines to be used by all students when writing site descriptions for Y'Know. The goal of the guidelines will be to assure that the annotations included in each issue are informative and consistent. The Annotations Guidelines discussion will include such topics as how to summarize content, what grabs a reader's interest, critiquing a site, and the justification for the ever-present statement, "It's cool!" Goals of the Y'Know Project The initial goals of the Y'Know project, as defined by the four teachers and two facilitators involved in the project, are listed below. Of course, after the lively discussions the teachers expect to have with the students next month, the goals may change! Here's what we have for starters: * To provide students with the opportunity, as users of the Internet, to identify and annotate a list of sites that are useful, fun, and interesting to them as students and as individuals. * To publish a list of sites that are potentially useful, fun and interesting to other students. To make the publication easy to use by assuring that it is a reliable source of information, clearly written, well organized, and provided in multiple distribution formats such as e-mail and the Web. * To offer a project that makes the work meaningful for the student writers by providing readers with the opportunity to give feedback to the writers, such as what the reader likes and dislikes about the publication, and sites they'd like to submit for a future issue. * To provide students with a source Web sites that might be useful in their studies as well as interesting and fun, thus sparking new interests. * To provide teachers with Internet resources that have been pre-selected and reviewed, for potential use in the classroom. * To make this a student driven publication where the participating students will determine the criteria for evaluating and including sites as well as how to write the annontations and some design features of Y'Know, including, ultimately, the name. Past Issues Two issues of Y'Know were released at the end of the last school year. Both issues are available at the Net Scout Web site, http://rs.internic.net/scout/yknow/. The first, dated May 31, 1996, was written and produced by the Nederland JASON Project team members of Nederland Middle School and Nederland Elementary School located in Nederland, Colorado. It contains sections on building a home page, oceanography, diving, and just plain fun stuff. Visit the Nederland JASON Project homepage at: http://bvsd.k12.co.us/docs/jason/. (The JASON Project is also profiled in this issue of the InterNIC News.) The second Issue of Y'Know was produced by students at the New Vista High School of Boulder, Colorado. It contains annotations of an eclectic group of eleven sites, including the Marx/Engels Archive, the Alternative Higher Education Network, two financial scandals pages, and the National Space Development Agency of Japan. Fall Distribution Publication of Y'Know will resume in October and will follow a bi-weekly schedule throughout the 96-97 school year. Each issue will be available at the Net Scout Web site and will be also be distributed via an electronic mailing list, similar to the Scout Report mailing list. Watch this space for publication announcements and mailing list subscription instructions. Be sure to tell your friends in grades K-12 to check-out Y'Know, a publication produced specifically for them by students their own age. And encourage them to let the student publishers know what they think! The Teachers Randy Sachter, a teacher at Nederland Elementary, and Stevan Kalmon, a teacher at New Vista High School, are participating from the Boulder Valley School District. Libby Black, Director of Internet Projects for the district, is assisting as facilitator. Cindy Koehn, a teacher at Cherokee Middle School, and Sue Birkenmeier, a teacher at Kennedy Elementary, are participating from the Madison Metropolitan School District. Barbara Spitz, Technology Integration Specialist, is assisting as facilitator. (Y'Know is a working title used for the initial issues released last Spring. The title will likely change in the Fall when students from the 4 classrooms will have the opportunity to choose a new, permanent name for the publication.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- InterNIC Status Report By Chuck Gomes, InterNIC Program Manager --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Invoicing for Newly Registered Domain Names As of July 5, 1996, InterNIC Registration Services eliminated all existing backlog of invoices for newly registered domain names. From that time forward, invoices for new names should be sent out within seven days of the registration date. In the case of e-mail transmission, an invoice should be received no later than 8 to 10 days after registration. In the case of postal mail transmission, an invoice should be received no later than 14 to 18 days after registration. If this is not the case, please notify us immediately at (703) 742-4777. Invoicing for Names Registered Prior to September 14, 1995 With regard to invoices for renewal registrations for names registered before September 14, 1995, there is a considerable backlog (more than 30 weeks). Some technical problems are still being worked and should be resolved by the end of July. Once the problems are fixed, the plan will be to send out 60-day notices for the current week plus two week's worth of backlog notices every week. If you have not yet received a 60-day notice for a name that was registered prior to September 14, 1995, it is probably not a problem yet, but here are some things you can do to ensure that it is not a problem: 1. Check Whois to ensure that the e-mail addresses for your points of contact are correct and if not, send in a Contact template to correct them. 2. Use InterNIC's web-based tracking system at http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/finger to check the status of your name or call our Help Desk to check the status at (703) 742-4777. In most cases, you will probably find that an invoice has not yet been generated; remember, regardless of your anniversary date, we do not start the clock ticking until we send out a 60-day notice. For names registered prior to September 14, 1995, you should first of all receive a 60-day notice via e-mail stating that you will receive an invoice in about 30 days with 30-day payment terms. If you do not want the invoice e-mailed to the Administrative Contact, please send in a Contact Template to add a Billing Contact and to specify the means of invoice transmission (e-mail or postal mail). A template will be attached to the 60-day notice to facilitate this process. Failure to Receive Original Invoices Numerous customers have complained that they never received the original invoice sent out by InterNIC Registration Services and that the first indication of a bill was the 15-Day Final Invoice. The first step that should be taken in this regard is to verify that the e-mail and postal mail (if applicable) addresses are correct. This can be done by looking your domain name up in Whois. If no Billing Contact is shown, that means that one was not supplied, so the invoice will be sent to the Admin contact by default. It is important to understand that contact addresses are automatically entered into our database based on the information that is sent in via templates, so if there are errors in the data received, there will more than likely be problems in delivery of the information sent out. A second step would be to check to see if contact information was changed after invoices were sent out. By using InterNIC's web-based tracking system at http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/finger, you can determine when an invoice was originally sent out. You can also do this by calling our Help Desk at (703) 742-4777. This step can help in determining whether contact addresses were corrected after invoices already went out. Because of the number of complaints received in this regard, we are currently doing a detailed, step-by-step analysis of the invoicing process to see if we can find any problems that could be causing invoices to not be received when we send them out. It is easy for us to verify when and to where invoices were sent, but we have no control over postal mail problems or Internet problems in terms of actual delivery. At the same time we want to do everything possible to ensure that invoices are received. For newly registered names, if an invoice is not received within 2 weeks of registration, please contact us right away so that we can send another invoice to you right away and avoid getting beyond the 30-day payment window. Status of Telephone and Fax Problems Because of the huge volume of telephone help desk and facsimile calls received over the past few months, our telephone lines, voice mail system, and facsimile equipment have been stretched beyond capacity. To deal with this, we have taken several actions: 1. New voice lines have been added. 2. A new fax machine has been put into operation, thereby resulting in two fax numbers, (703) 742-9552 and (703) 742-4811. 3. A new voice mail message server was purchased and installed. 4. Billing Contact information was added to the Whois database display to allow customers to access this information directly instead of having to call us. 5. Customers have been provided the ability to directly access billing information about their domain names through our Web-based tracking system. In addition to these actions that have already been completed, we are continuing to evaluate other options regarding our telephone support. These include changing our policy to shorten the payment cycle, procuring a totally new telephone system, procuring and implementing new call center technology tools, and improving billing and collection processes. Throughout the ongoing process of improving our customer support for InterNIC Registration Services, it is important that our customers continue to alert us to problems being experienced. So we encourage you to communicate the problems you are experiencing. In the meantime, thanks for your patience and cooperation in helping us serve you better. Chuck Gomes Program Manager InterNIC Registration Services --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cautionary Tales from the INET Conference By Jack Solock, Special Librarian, InterNIC Net Scout Services --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is the Internet Really So New and Different? This month's column steps away from the nuts and bolts of searching, browsing, and Internet publishing and looks at a few of the bigger issues concerning the future of the Internet. I do this in the hope that we will not get so wrapped up in our love affair with Internet technology that we lose sight of the fact that people have been down this road before, and the road may not lead where we'd like it to. If you haven't been to an INET (Internet Society) or IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) meeting, it is almost impossible to describe the electricity that flows among the participants. Before joining InterNIC Net Scout Services, I was a Special Librarian in a university academic department library. I had an inkling of the power of the Internet, as I used it more and more with my small client base. But I had no idea of the potential of this medium until I was privileged to be able to attend these conferences in Montreal, Quebec in June and hear from the people who have made "Internet" the buzzword of the late 20th century. And so it was that, with program in hand, I scanned the various track descriptions, trying to figure out how I could possibly take in as much information as I wanted to in so short a time. One of the conference tracks particularly caught my eye. It was called "Internet and Social Transformation." As I had done my undergraduate work in history, I wanted to see what kind of spin the presenters would put on this subject. What I heard was fascinating and not a little frightening, but, in retrospect, not particularly shocking. People who work with the Internet every day are prone to get caught up in it and become carried away with the hype and rhetoric of its promoters. Two presentations in particular, "The Silencing of a Democratic Medium: Early Public Policy on Radio and the Regulation of the Internet," by John Stevenson, Professor of Communications Studies at Concordia University (Montreal), and "Wired Words: Utopia, Revolution, and the History of Electronic Highways," by Mark Surman, Web Networks/NirvCentre Canada, put historical, social, and political perspective on this new technology. In doing so, they showed that perhaps the only really new thing about the Internet is the technology itself. In theorizing that we had been down this "new technology" path before, and tracing where the earlier paths had led, the authors told a sobering, cautionary tale about where the Internet might be headed, and what role its creators and users might have in its future. Stevenson's presentation painted a picture of early radio that was startlingly similar to that of the Internet. In the early 1920's, Stevenson said, "Amateurs were radio's primary programming producers and audience...In 1926, one-third of radio stations were owned and operated by a nonprofit organization, and one-third were run for publicity purposes by area businesses. Only 4.3% of radios described themselves as 'commercial'... From a commercial perspective, the 1920s was dominated by a search for a business model for broadcasting. Advertising and sponsorship, developed in the latter part of the decade, were hotly debated and generally derided as methods of achieving sustainability." The rest of Stevenson's tale concerns what happened to radio, from the 1930's until today. It began with mostly amateur producers, and one of its primary functions was two-way communication. By the end of the 1930's it was almost completely commercial, and almost totally one-way in terms of active commercial providers and passive receivers, especially in the United States. Through legislation (the Radio Act of 1932 in the U.S.), the commercial sector was able to gain the upper hand in radio, a medium that it almost totally monopolizes today. Let's take a look at radio. In the old days it had little bandwidth, but had the advantage of an enthusiastic cadre of devoted amateur users who wished it to be a democratizing, active communication technology. Today it is is a medium containing, for the most part, two ranges of very wide bandwidth that are full of...entertainment. The commercial sector has basically turned it into an advertising medium. This is because the commercial sector is, at its foundation, driven by the profit motive. Radio has given us more and more choices over the years, while actually providing less content. Stevenson makes this point clearly in advising caution with respect to what the future of the Internet will be. "The commercialization of the Internet is not in and of itself bad; what is problematic is the possibility that commercial interests will come to dominate the Internet in such a way that there are fewer meaningful choices. The choice is not simply in terms of individual programs or in types of programming, but also in methods of ownership, decision-making and financing." Surman's presentation was a bit more caustic, emphasizing by the analysis of the early years of cable TV, that with any new communications technology, users should: "Beware of self-styled, wired revolutionaries bearing gifts. You probably know who I'm talking about. If you don't, you'll know them when you see them. They'll be carrying all sorts of shiny parcels with words like democracy, plenitude, equity, and knowledge emblazoned across the wrapping in big, fluorescent orange letters...Unfortunately, this warm, fuzzy special-moment-in-history feeling is in many ways the tip of a big pile of collective self-delusion." Why? According to Surman, it is because we get too caught up in the hardware itself, forgetting about the fact that it is people who own and use technology. Different people have different political and economic interests. No hardware, no matter how "shiny" is going to change that. Cable TV began in the 1960's with much of the promise for democracy and equity that radio did in the 1920's. Like radio, it was touted as a democratizing, two-way communications medium. In the 1990's, it has ended up just as radio has, with more capacity used to provide less content. The details are different, but the story has ended up just about the same. As Surman puts it, "Great hopes for a new society slowly shrivel away into just another medium defined by big corporate or government interests." Both Stevenson and Surman suggest the same remedy to help the Internet avoid the fate of radio and cable TV. It has to do with people, not hardware. The people who have created and used the Internet must lobby and advocate for it to remain the democratizing and communicating tool that it is. Stevenson points to the example of the Canadian Radio League in the 1930's, which helped to keep a segment of Canadian radio in "the public interest." Surman quotes Mitch Kapor to make the point that "the openness (in all senses) of the Internet reflects...the sensibilities and values of its architects. Had the Internet somehow been developed outside the world of research and education, it's less likely to have had such an open architecture." According to Surman, "Politics is a pain in the butt." But it is crucial to the future direction of the Internet. If our love affair with technology continues, we just might miss the development that cable companies, telecoms, and large software companies are beginning to try to set infrastructure standards for the Internet. We might miss the fact that the commercial sector is pushing very hard to find an Internet model that "pays." We might miss the government attempting to control the content of the medium. Miss these things, and we could end up with the radio or cable TV of the 2000s. Full text of both papers can be found at the Internet Society Web site: http://www.isoc.org/ Make sure to connect to the papers from the ISOC home page, as the URLs of individual papers may change. Papers can be found under track E2: Learning from Other Technologies. In addition, nearly 150 other papers from the INET proceedings can be found at the site. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- User Feedback --------------------------------------------------------------------------- What would you like to see in the InterNIC News? Our goal is to produce an interesting, informative publication that addresses the needs of the Internet's diverse population, both information providers and information seekers. Tell us what you'd like to see in future issues of the InterNIC News. How can we address your information needs? We also welcome any contributions you are willing to make to this newsletter. The InterNIC staff looks forward to working closely with you to inform the Internet community about your R&E projects, technological developments, and user services. In the future, we plan to publish and answer selected letters to the editor in this space. Write to us, and we'll do our best to address your concerns about this publication. You may contact the editor of the InterNIC News via e-mail at editor@internic.net. In addition to story ideas or contributions, we sincerely appreciate your comments and suggestions on how we can make this newsletter a publication that satisfies the needs of the Internet community. Please note that we can only respond to questions and comments that are acompanied by a valid e-mail address. Thank you for your input. Tom Newell InterNIC Support Services liaison@internic.net Julie Robichaux Internet Services Support Specialist editor@internic.net --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Get the InterNIC News --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The InterNIC News will be published monthly. You may visit the InterNIC Support Services Web site to see the latest issue and to peruse back issues (http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/nicnews/). The newsletter will also be made available in a plain-text version, for access at the InterNIC's FTP site (ftp://rs.internic.net/NIC-support/newsletter/) and for distribution via an electronic mailing list. To subscribe to the newsletter distribution list, you may either use our Web-based interface at http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/lwgate/NEWSLETTER/, or simply send e-mail to listserv@internic.net with the command SUBSCRIBE NEWSLETTER [YOUR NAME] in the body of the mail message. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using This Material --------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are encouraged to use and redistribute the InterNIC News, provided the following conditions are met: Permission to copy or use material from the InterNIC News newsletter is hereby granted subject to inclusion of the following statement: "This article is reprinted with permission from the InterNIC News, published by the InterNIC." This newsletter and its contents may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the written permission of the copyright holder. This material is based on work sponsored by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement #NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------