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EFFector Online 3.07 - October 22, 1992 - Pioneer
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########## ########## ########## | PIONEER AWARDS 2.0
########## ########## ########## | Call for Nominations
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######## ######## ######## | EFF/AUSTIN: The First Chapter
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#### #### #### | THE SETTLING OF THE INTERNET
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########## #### #### | FTP.EFF.ORG:The Users' Site
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EFFector Online October 22, 1992 Issue 3.07
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424
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THE SECOND ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EFF PIONEER AWARDS:
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
Deadline: December 31,1992
In every field of human endeavor,there are those dedicated to expanding
knowledge,freedom,efficiency and utility. Along the electronic frontier,
this is especially true. To recognize this,the Electronic Frontier
Foundation has established the Pioneer Awards for deserving individuals
and organizations.
The Pioneer Awards are international and nominations are open to all.
In March of 1992, the first EFF Pioneer Awards were given in Washington
D.C. The winners were: Douglas C. Engelbart of Fremont, California;
Robert Kahn of Reston, Virginia; Jim Warren of Woodside, California; Tom
Jennings of San Francisco, California; and Andrzej Smereczynski of
Warsaw, Poland.
The Second Annual Pioneer Awards will be given in San Francisco,
California at the 3rd Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy
in March of 1993.
All valid nominations will be reviewed by a panel of impartial judges
chosen for their knowledge of computer-based communications and the
technical, legal, and social issues involved in networking.
There are no specific categories for the Pioneer Awards, but the
following guidelines apply:
1) The nominees must have made a substantial contribution to the
health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based
communications.
2) The contribution may be technical, social, economic or cultural.
3) Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in
the private or public sectors.
4) Nominations are open to all, and you may nominate more than one
recipient. You may nominate yourself or your organization.
5) All nominations, to be valid, must contain your reasons, however
brief, on why you are nominating the individual or organization,
along with a means of contacting the nominee, and your own contact
number. No anonymous nominations will be allowed.
6) Every person or organization, with the single exception of EFF
staff members, are eligible for Pioneer Awards.
7) Persons or representatives of organizations receiving a Pioneer
Award will be invited to attend the ceremony at the Foundation's
expense.
You may nominate as many as you wish, but please use one form per
nomination. You may return the forms to us via email to
[email protected]
You may mail them to us at:
Pioneer Awards, EFF,
155 Second Street
Cambridge MA 02141.
You may FAX them to us at:
+1 617 864 0866
Just tell us the name of the nominee, the phone number or email address
at which the nominee can be reached, and, most important, why you feel
the nominee deserves the award. You may attach supporting
documentation. Please include your own name, address, and phone number.
We're looking for the Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier that have made
and are making a difference. Thanks for helping us find them,
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
-------EFF Pioneer Awards Nomination Form------
Please return to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
via email to: [email protected]
via surface mail to EFF 155 Second Street, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA;
via FAX to +1 617 864 0866
Nominee:
Title:
Company/Organization:
Contact number or email address:
Reason for nomination:
Your name and contact information:
Extra documentation attached:
DEADLINE: ALL NOMINATIONS MUST BE RECEIVE BY THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER
FOUNDATION BY MIDNIGHT, EASTERN STANDARD TIME U.S., DECEMBER 31,1992.
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THE EFF/AUSTIN CHAPTER
A Progress Report by John S. Quarterman
President of Autsin EFF.
As of July 1992, the official name of our group is EFF-Austin,
and we are a Texas nonprofit corporation. Our goals, adapted from
those of EFF-National, are given in our Articles of Incorporation:
(a) to engage in and support educational activities that
increase understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed
by computing and telecommunications, and related civil liberties
issues.
(b) to foster a clearer social understanding of the issues
underlying free and open telecommunications; and
© to facilitate and encourage communication between
individuals interested in computer and telecommunication
technology and related social and legal issues.
Among other activities in pursuit of these goals, we hold three
distinct types of public meetings: member meetings; Public Forums; and
Cyberdawgs.
Member meetings consist of presentations by EFF-Austin directors and
others on what EFF-Austin is doing, and questions and suggestions
from the attendees.
Our first general public meeting was held in May, at the Austin
Technology Incubator. Close to sixty people attended to listen to
what we had to say and to offer ideas. We are planning another member
meeting for November.
Public Forums have specific agendas and speakers, and both present
information of interest to our members and the public, and invite
discussion.
Our most recent public forum was "The Net: What is It, Where is it,
Who Uses It, and for What?", presented by John Quarterman and Smoot
Carl-Mitchell of Texas Internet Consulting and Matrix Information
and Directory Services, and Anna Couey, an art networker from
San Francisco. This was held at MCC and included online demonstrations
of Internet applications such as anonymous FTP, archie, and gopher,
as well as TELNET to locations such as Moscow and the WELL.
The next scheduled Public Forum is on October 29. Noted science
fiction author Bruce Sterling will speak and sign copies concerning his
latest work, the nonfiction book, The Hacker Crackdown, just published
by Bantam. This meeting will be held at the University of Texas. We
are inviting local law enforcement officers to attend, considering
the subject matter of the book. Cliff Figallo, Director of the Cambridge
Office of the Electronic Frontier Foundation will also attend.
Ed Cavazos is currently organizing a panel discussion on Sysop Liability
that will be given in January of next year.
In contrast to the formal presentation of a Public Forum is a
"Cyberdawg". These are informal networking mixers. (The name comes
from a hot dog picnic held last year at the Steve Jackson Games office
in Austin.) We have held two Cyberdawgs so far , in June and August,
at the High Times Tea Bar and Brain Gym (a local establishment
that serves intellectual games instead of alcohol), and at Europa Books.
They were well-attended by a diverse mix of the Austin electronic
community. All types of computer users met to talk, exchange
information, make contacts, and simply have fun. We have scheduled the
next Cyberdawg for November, and plan to have Tracy LaQuey Parker
present to sign copies of her latest book, The Internet Companion,
just published by Addison-Wesley.
Another method of information distribution that we have employed is
staffing tables at conventions. For example, we held a table at the
Government and Technology Convention in February of 1992, and have
plans to be present at the 1993 show as well. We had a meeting at
the Armadillocon Science Fiction Convention 9-11 October.
Since several of our members are frequent travelers to SF conventions,
we have presented panels and distributed literature at many such events.
We consider this worthwhile, since science fiction readers are likely
to be interested in the way society evolves to handle evolving
technology.
At all of these events we have been passing out EFF literature that we
possess at the time. We have created information of our own, as well.
There is the Info Disk, which contains text files that serve as a
primer to relevant issues in the use of computers and networks.
September saw the first issue of our online newsletter, Word, which we
plan to distribute monthly. EFF-Austin also sponsors a moderated
newsgroup, austin.eff, linked bidirectionally with a mailing list,
[email protected]. That newsgroup and mailing list are about
EFF-Austin and local concerns, but they are already widely
distributed outside of Austin and on BBSes as well as through
USENET, UUCP, and the Internet.
This is all in addition to the meetings of the Board of Directors
(fifteen in the last twelve months). We currently hold these meetings
on the second Tuesday of each month.
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CURRENT SITE @eff.org
Where Users Come First.
by Rita Rouvalis
([email protected])
Carefully assemble four Sparcstation II's, nine gigs of disk storage,
a T1 and what do you get? One hopping Internet site and the Heart and
Soul of the EFF. Traditionally, netiquette has required that most ftp
transfers be done druing non-business or off-peak hours. The reason for
the request is that most ftp machines are also used for other tasks by
the local users. ftp.eff.org, however, is a dedicated ftp, gopher, and
WAIS machine. This means that it is not at the staff's disposal, but
yours. So pound away on it at any time of the day or night. That's the
reason we built it.
Services like WAIS, and GOPHER underscore our enthusiasm for better,
easier-to-use technology for accessing the information stored on the
Net. The wide variety of subject matter found in our anonymous FTP
archives is a working testimony to our belief in the free and open flow
of all kinds of information, not simply the official EFF positions and
publications (these are found only in the EFF directory).
And not only is our hardware the key distribution point for official EFF
documents like EFFector Online and NewsNotes, but we're also the virtual
home for other, similar-minded organizations like Carl Kadie's Computers
and Academic Freedom, the Index on Censorship, the Boston Computer
Society, the Massachusetts branch of Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility (CPSR), Beyond Dreams, and the Commercial Internet
Exchange (CIX).
Last month, an average of 1371 files *a day* were sucked down from our
archives. Some of your favorites, according to our statistics, are
File Downloads in September
/pub/cud/phrack/phrack-40 454
/pub/EFF/legal-issues/eff-fbi-analysis 230
/pub/EFF/about-eff 197
/pub/cud/cud/cud4.41 173
/pub/internet-info/ftp.sites 101
/pub/journals/CORE/core1.08 53
/etc/passwd 39
/pub/EFF/legal-issues/against-look-and-feel 39
/pub/EFF/papers/crime-and-puzzlement 33
/pub/journals/InterText/ITv2n4-ascii 29
One of the best-kept secrets on ftp.eff.org is the relatively quiet
little corner occupied by the /journals directory. One of the most
selective news stands in Cyberspace, it contains a small number of
excellent and widely varied electronic publications. Our two newest
additions to the magazine rack are CurrentCites, which presents selected
articles on information transfer, electronic publishing, expert systems
and artificial intelligence, and more; and ScreamBaby, a tense, neurotic
'zine that asks the all-consuming question "What the hell did *YOU* do
today?"
Other recent additions include a document on electronic communications
from Human Right Watch (/pub/EFF/papers/electrifying-speech); the first
edition of Word, the EFF-Austin chapter's newsletter (/pub/EFF/local-
chapters/Austin_TX/Word1); and the EJournal Directory, an extensive list
of electronic publications (/pub/journals/EJournal.Directory2.1).
We are always looking for new files of interest to add to our ftp
collection. If you know of anything appropriate, please drop us a note
at [email protected].
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From the Univ of Wisconsin Microelectronics bulletin, Prof. F Cerrina
as the author:
"After the Microlithography '92 conference in Japan, we toured some
of the leading electronics laboratories. Our visit to Hitachi's
Central Research Lab included an amusing demonstration of the
resolution of current lithography. On a four-inch wafer, they printed
a map of the world that included the streets of London down to the
smallest alleys. It's now possible to put a fully detailed map of
the world on a six-inch wafer."
Food for thought...
(Submitted by Gary Delp <[email protected]> )
-==--==--==-<>-==--==--==-
The Settling of the Internet
by David Tyckson
([email protected] )
It has been nearly three months since I sent my original "What's
Going On Here?" message to PACS-L, which dealt with the migration from
electronic to print format of some of my favorite network publications.
While I expected some responses to this message, I did not expect the
flood of material that came to me both privately and over the network.
I am finally clearing my mailbox of old messages and would like to
report to PACS-L on this topic.
The vast majority of responses disagreed with me and indicated that
print is an appropriate, if not preferred, publication medium. Many
replies stressed the rights of authors to receive royalty payments for
print publications, the fact that print gets wider distribution than
electronic media, and that the author has every right to select the
publication format. One particularly thoughtful response (sent on
PACS-L by Czeslaw Jan Grycz) discussed the role of electronic
publication in the scholarly communications process. Other responses
moved into a variety of related topics, including copyright, the cost of
the network, and even the global environment. It is clear that my
original message struck a nerve among many network users.
Some responses were predictable (the editors of PACS Review were
not pleased with my attack on the print version of their publication),
some were enlightening (Brendan Kehoe gave an excellent review of the
evolution of Zen and the Art of the Internet), and some were surprising
(I did not realize that Zen had been written by an undergraduate
student). Perhaps the most surprising response of all was finding
myself quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a fact which I
became aware of only when the Office of the President of my university
called to find out more about my "article" in the Chronicle!
After all of this discussion and publicity, what exactly is going
on here? The Internet is not dying, as my initial message may have led
some to believe, but is alive and very, very well. In fact, network
resources comprise the biggest growth area in the information world at
the moment. All of the training sessions, publications, and new network
position advertisements clearly show that the Internet will be around
for a long time to come. It is not death that we must worry about, but
rapid growth.
Because of this growth, something DID happen to the Internet last
summer. The issues that I raised originally were not indicators of the
end of the network, but were signs of its maturation. Whereas in the
past the networks were the playthings (and workthings) of a few network
elite, they have grown to encompass a much broader clientele. It is
this volume of users that has resulted in the changes. Last summer, the
number of network users passed the critical mass required to attract
interest from commercial publishers and the press. While this attention
will help the Internet to grow even further, it takes something away
from the communal aspects of the early users.
Like the telephone user who was required to move from a party line
to a private line when he/she realized who else could be monitoring the
calls, the presence of journalistic and commercial entities on the
networks may change the nature of the information communicated over
these networks. Information that has been given away freely in the past
may now require some type of payment to a publisher. While the creators
of information deserve credit (both intellectual and monetary) for their
work, the formalization of this process will tend to discourage
"skywriting" as we have known it in the past. In addition, authors who
may formerly have spontaneously responded to other messages may now be
cautious in what they say and how they say it. The numerous disclaimer
statements at the end of author signatures are already a step in this
direction.
Last summer saw the passing of an era in networked resources.
Before the summer, the network was populated primarily by pioneers, who
explored its resources out of enthusiasm, interest, and a sense of
exploration. Now it is being populated by settlers, who wish to mine
the networks in some sort of production mode. The early users
(pioneers) were able to explore and search in a somewhat unrestricted
manner, creating their own rules as they went along. Some did it for
the challenge, some in search of specific types of resources, and others
just for the fun of seeing what was out there.
The success of those pioneer efforts brought many more users onto
the networks. However, these new users did not usually have the same
motives for utilizing networked resources. Rather than exploring the
network wilderness, the new users (settlers) want resources that they
can use in their everyday lives. They also want guides to these
resources and rules for their use. The commercial and journalistic
presence in issues related to the network is a clear indication that we
have evolved into the settler stage.
Unfortunately, the cultures of pioneers and settlers do not always
conform. Pioneers want freedom, while settlers want order. While some
pioneers stake out an area and become leading settlers in an aspect of
networked resources, others move on and continue to explore new areas.
The pioneers laid the groundwork for the rest of us (I consider myself a
very early settler) and we owe them our gratitude for making us aware of
the capabilities of networked information. While we may lament the
passing of the good old days of freewheeling information flow, we have
moved on into an era in which more networked information will be
available to more people than ever.
Last summer saw the passing of the era of the wild, wild Internet.
It is now up to those of us who have settled these new territories to
develop rules, regulations, and guidebooks that will make information
available equitably for everyone. I have faith that we, as information
organizers, will be able to develop a culture that preserves democratic
access to information resources. If not, we will have settled a land
not worth inhabiting.
David Tyckoson
Head, Reference Department
University Libraries
University at Albany - SUNY
(518) 442-3559
DT673@ALBNYVMS
-==--==--==-<>-==--==--==-
FROM THE MBOX
From: "Thomas Leedy, Admin A-402, Ext 2410" <[email protected]>
To: Electronic Frontier Foundation <[email protected]>
Subject: Where Can I Get One of Those Bumper Stickers?
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 09:46:31 EDT
I saw a *great* bumper sticker on the Washington DC Beltway this morning
and almost ran the poor guy off the road trying to read the Internet
address ...so I hope that I have this right. It said "I'd rather be
telecommuting. " Do you people make these available? If so how can I get
one? (The only other way I know is to steal the fellow's bumper!) Would
be interested in other material/positions that the Electronic Frontier
Foundation makes available.
Thanks!
Best ... Tom
[email protected]
[Editors note: Card-carrying members of the EFF can get one bumper
sticker for free. Non-members can buy them for $2 each, pre-paid.
Please include a self-addressed stamped business-sized envelope and
specify whether you want:
"I'd rather be telecommuting."
"CYBERNAUT"
"Highways in Cyberspace: 'Make it so.'"
"My other car is a computer."
Gifs of these can be viewed by ftp'ing to ftp.eff.org and cd'ing to
/pub/EFF/eff-issues thanks to the generous volunteer work of Mark
Sheenan ([email protected]).]
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MEMBERSHIP IN THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION
If you support our goals and our work, you can show that support by
becoming a member now. Members receive our bi-weekly electronic
newsletter, EFFector Online, the @eff.org newsletter
and special releases and other notices on our activities. But because
we believe that support should be freely given, you can receive these
things even if you do not elect to become a member.
Our memberships are $20.00 per year for students, $40.00 per year for
regular members. You may, of course, donate more if you wish.
Our privacy policy: The Electronic Frontier Foundation will never, under
any circumstances, sell any part of its membership list. We will, from
time to time, share this list with other non-profit organizations whose
work we determine to be in line with our goals. If you do not grant
explicit permission, we assume that you do not wish your membership
disclosed to any group for any reason.
---------------- EFF MEMBERSHIP FORM ---------------
Mail to: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc.
155 Second St. #37
Cambridge, MA 02141
I wish to become a member of the EFF I enclose:$__________
$20.00 (student or low income membership)
$40.00 (regular membership)
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This allows any organization to
become a member of EFF. It allows
such an organization, if it wishes
to designate up to five individuals
within the organization as members.)
I enclose an additional donation of $
Name:
Organization:
Address:
City or Town:
State: Zip: Phone:( ) (optional)
FAX:( ) (optional)
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I enclose a check [ ] .
Please charge my membership in the amount of $
to my Mastercard [ ] Visa [ ] American Express [ ]
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Expiration date:
Signature:
Date:
I hereby grant permission to the EFF to share my name with
other non-profit groups from time to time as it deems
appropriate [ ] .
Initials:
Your membership/donation is fully tax deductible.
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EFFector Online is published by
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
155 Second Street, Cambridge MA 02141
Phone: +1 617 864 0665 FAX: +1 617 864 0866
Internet Address: [email protected]
Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged.
Signed articles do not necessarily represent the view of the EFF.
To reproduce signed articles individually,
please contact the authors for their express permission.
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This newsletter is printed on 100% recycled electrons.
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