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conference where American students can practice

those languages with students from Quebec and German).

There are also conferences aimed at teachers of specific

subjects, from physical education to physics. The K12

network still has limited distribution, so ask your

system administrator if your system carries it.

Kidsphere: Kidsphere is a mailing list for elementary and secondary

teachers, who use it to arrange joint projects and

discuss educational telecommunications. You will find

news of new software, lists of sites from which you can

get computer-graphics pictures from various NASA

satellites and probes and other news of interest to

modem-using teachers.

To subscribe, send a request by e-mail to kidsphere-

request@vms.cis.pitt.edu or joinkids@vms.cis.pitt.edu and

you will start receiving messages within a couple of

days.

To contribute to the discussion, send messages to

kidsphere@vms.cis.pitt.edu.

KIDS is a spin-off of KIDSPHERE just for students

who want to contact students. To subscribe, send a

request to joinkids@vms.cis.pitt.edu, as above. To

contribute, send messages to kids@vms.cist.pitt.edu.

Knoxville Using the newspaper in the electronic classroom. This

News- gopher site lets students and teachers connect to

Sentinel the newspaper, and provides resources for them derived

Online from the newsroom. Use gopher to connect to

gopher.opup.org

MicroMUSE This is an online, futuristic city, built entirely by

participants (see chapter 11 for information on MUSEs

and MUDs in general). Hundreds of students from all

over have participated in this educational exercise,

coordinated by MIT. Telnet to michael.ai.mit.edu.

Log on as guest and then follow the prompts for more

information.

NASA Spacelink: This system, run by NASA in Huntsville, Ala.,

provides all sorts of reports and data about NASA, its

history and its various missions, past and present.

Telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov or 128.158.13.250.

When you connect, you’ll be given an overview of the

system and asked to register. The system maintains a

large file library of GIF-format space graphics, but note

that you can’t download these through telnet. If you want

to, you have to dial the system directly, at (205) 895-

0028. Many can be obtained through ftp from

ames.arc.nasa.gov, however.

Newton: Run by the Argonne National Laboratory, it offers

conferences for teachers and students, including one

called “Ask a Scientist.”

Telnet: newton.dep.anl.gov.

Log in as: cocotext

You’ll be asked to provide your name and address. When

you get the main menu, hit 4 for the various conferences.

The “Ask a Scientist” category lets you ask questions of

scientists in fields from biology to earth science.

Other categories let you discuss teaching, sports and

computer networks.

OERI: The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational

Resources and Improvement runs a gopher system that

provides numerous educational resources, information and

statistics for teachers. Use gopher to connect to

gopher.ed.gov.

Spacemet Forum: If your system doesn’t carry the K12 conferences, but

does provide you with telnet, you can reach the

conferences through SpaceMet Forum, a bulletin-board

system aimed at teachers and students that is run by the

physics and astronomy department at the University of

Massachusetts at Amherst.

Telnet: spacemet.phast.umass.edu.

When you connect, hit escape once, after which you’ll be

asked to log on. Like K12Net, SpaceMet Forum began as a

Fidonet system, but has since grown much larger. Mort

and Helen Sternheim, professors at the university,

started SpaceMet as a one-line bulletin-board system

several years ago to help bolster middle-school science

education in nearby towns.

In addition to the K12 conferences, SpaceMet carries

numerous educationally oriented conferences. It also has

a large file library of interest to educators and

students, but be aware that getting files to your site

could be difficult and maybe even impossible. Unlike

most other Internet sites, Spacemet does not use an ftp

interface. The Sternheims say ZMODEM sometimes works over

the network, but don’t count on it.

12.3 USENET AND BITNET IN THE CLASSROOM

There are numerous Usenet newsgroups of potential interest to

teachers and students.

As you might expect, many are of a scientific bent. You can find

these by typing l sci. in rn or using nngrep sci. for nn. There are now

close to 40, with subjects ranging from archaeology to economics (the

“dismal science,” remember?) to astronomy to nanotechnology (the

construction of microscopically small machines).

One thing students will quickly learn from many of these groups:

science is not just dull, boring facts. Science is argument and standing

your ground and making your case. The Usenet sci. groups encourage

critical thinking.

Beyond science, social-studies and history classes can keep busy

learning about other countries, through the soc.culture newsgroups.

Most of these newsgroups originated as ways for expatriates of a

given country to keep in touch with their homeland and its culture. In

times of crisis, however, these groups often become places to

disseminate information from or into the country and to discuss what is

happening. From Afghanistan to Yugoslavia, close to 50 countries are

now represented on Usenet. To see which groups are available, use l

soc.culture. in rn or nngrep soc.culture. for nn.

Several “talk” newsgroups provide additional topical discussions,

but teachers should screen them first before recommending them to

students. They range from talk.abortion and talk.politics.guns to

talk.politics.space and talk.environment.

One caveat: Teachers might want to peruse particular newsgroups

before setting their students loose in them. Some have higher levels of

flaming and blather than others.

There are also a number of Bitnet discussion groups of potential

interest to students and teachers. See Chapter 5 for information on

finding and subscribing to Bitnet discussion groups. Some with an

educational orientation include:

biopi-l ksuvm.bitnet Secondary biology education

chemed-l uwf.bitnet Chemistry education

dts-l iubvm.bitnet The Dead Teacher’s Society list

phys-l uwf.bitnet Discussions for physics teachers

physhare psuvm.bitnet Where physics teachers share resources

scimath-l psuvm.bitnet Science and math education

To get a list of ftp sites that carry astronomical images in the GIF

graphics format, use ftp to connect to nic.funet.fi. Switch to the

/pub/astro/general directory and get the file astroftp.txt. Among the

sites listed is ames.arc.nasa.gov, which carries images taken by the

Voyager and Galileo probes, among other pictures.

CHAPTER 13: Business on the Net

13.1 SETTING UP SHOP

Back in olden days, oh, before 1990 or so, there were no markets in

the virtual community — if you wanted to buy a book, you still had to

jump in your car and drive to the nearest bookstore.

This was because in those days, the Net consisted mainly of a series

of government-funded networks on which explicit commercial activity was

forbidden. Today, much of the Net is run by private companies, which

generally have no such restrictions, and a number of companies have begun

experimenting with online “shops” or other services. Many of these shops

are run by booksellers, while the services range from delivery of indexed

copies of federal documents to an online newsstand that hopes to entice

you to subscribe to any of several publications (of the printed on paper

variety). A number of companies also use Usenet newsgroups (in the biz

hierarchy) to distribute press releases and product information.

Still, commercial activity on the remains far below that found on

other networks, such as CompuServe, with its Electronic Mall, or Prodigy,

with its advertisements on almost every screen. In part that’s because

of the newness and complexity of the Internet as a commercial medium. In

part, however, that is because of security concerns. Companies worry

about such issues as crackers getting into their system over the network,

and many people do not like the idea of sending a credit-card number via

the Internet (an e-mail message could be routed through several sites to

get to its destination). These concerns could disappear as Net users

turn to such means as message encryption and “digital signatures.” In the

meantime, however, businesses on the Net can still consider themselves

something of Internet pioneers.

A couple of public-access sites and a regional network have set up

“marketplaces” for online businesses.

The World in Brookline, Mass., currently rents “space” to several

bookstores and computer-programming firms, as well as an “adult toy

shop.” To browse their offerings, use gopher to connect to

world.std.com

At the main menu, select “Shops on the World.”

Msen in Ann Arbor provides its “Msen Marketplace,” where you’ll find

a travel agency and an “Online Career Center” offering help-wanted ads

from across the country. Msen also provides an “Internet Business

Pages,” an online directory of companies seeking to reach the Internet

community. You can reach Msen through gopher at

gopher.msen.com

At the main menu, select “Msen Marketplace.”

The Nova Scotia Technology Network runs a “Cybermarket” on its

gopher service at

nstn.ns.ca

There, you’ll find an online bookstore that lets you order books through

e-mail (to which you’ll have to trust your credit-card number) and a

similar “virtual record store.’’ Both let you search their wares by

keyword or by browsing through catalogs.

Other online businesses include:

AnyWare Associates This Boston company runs an Internet-to-fax

gateway that lets you send fax message anywhere

in the world via the Internet (for a fee, of

course). For more information, write

sales@awa.com

Bookstacks Unlimited This Cleveland bookstore offers a keyword-

searchable database of thousands of books for

sale. Telnet:

books.com

Counterpoint Publishing Based in Cambridge, Mass., this company’s main

Internet product is indexed versions of federal

journals, including the Federal Register (a daily

compendium of government contracts, proposed

regulations and the like). Internet users can

browse through recent copies, but complete access

will run several thousand dollars a year. Use

gopher to connect to

enews.com

and select “Counterpoint Publishing”

Dialog The national database company can be reached

through telnet at

dialog.com

To log on, however, you will have first had to

set up a Dialog account.

Dow Jones News A wire service run by the information company

Retrieval that owns the Wall Street Journal. Available

via telnet at

djnr.dowjones.com

As with