[2091] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Trickle Down? How About Bubble Up?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Hughes)
Sat Jan 25 15:06:00 1992
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1992 13:01:45 -0700
From: Dave Hughes <daveh@csn.org>
To: com-priv@psi.com
When Derek Atkins says:
>I disagree. I think many people just don't know what a network
>can do ...How do you go about it?
>When the cost of replacing all the PC's and mainframe with
>workstations gets to be a reasonable value... then I'd expect to see a
>change.
I have to question whether 'trickle down' workstations, when
'affordable' is some sort of nirvana. I don't think so. I think that the
future is going to be many networks - a global network of networks - of
ever increasing complexity. The Internet being just one, and not
necesarily the best for lots of things, any more than glitzy
workstations are. The portable notebook, specialized messsaging,
processing, successors to pagers, packet/digital radio nets - all those
are going to explode in diversity and connectedness. We are talking
about PERSONAL global communications - not just 'institutional' and not
just what kind of 'PCs/Workstatios' or singular 'networks.' If the
medium has been the message of the past, the people are the network of
the future. Mind to mind. Mind to machine. Machine to machine. The
devices and channels simply supporting that. And knowbots doing things
that obviate the necessity to be able to directly telnet, ftp, or rlogin
in many cases.
And even those who understand far better than I what the 'top level'
(Internet-Bitnet etc) networks are, seem to know too little about what
and how the 'grass roots' networks - which are already affordable and
being used, are, and how they work. And fewer less, how they can, do,
and should, work together.
How do you describe them? Not with words alone, surely. If even *this*
com=priv on the Internet was using such a sensible top-to-bottom
graphics protocol as NAPLPS to 'draw net pictures' we would be further
along. (which I can do on grass-roots nets, but the big nets can't seem
to do, with resort to humongous code like X-windows requiring powerhouse
workstations etc etc etc). All computer communications wisdom power is
not at the top, to be trickled down on the rest of us. (I chafe at why
the mighty Internet or academic Bitnet can't do lots of things the
simplist BBS can do).
So lacking a workstation-on-every desk, or more appropriate substitutes,
below I have included the 'net of nets' being used right now for another
section of MIT to teach the mathematics and physics of Chaos to students
and teachers in very remote, very small PC and modem environments. As an
explanation to those who only know big nets.
-------
COMMUNICATING CHAOS
How Are We All Connected, Anyway?
Dr. Johnston, MIT, the Master Instructor for this 16 week Spring '92
telecommunicated course in the Math and Physics of Chaos suggested I
describe the way we are all 'connected' in this virtual classroom for
this class.
1. As of January 22d, 1992:
11 Schools in 4 States (Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana)
40 High School Students
14 Math/Science Teachers
18 Computer Coordinator/Sysops
2 Volunteer Math Assistants/Observers
Or a total of 74 online direct participants
2. Participants are directly logging into the following systems:
TYPE Netname Mode
2 Usenet Unix Systems
Old Colorado City oldcolo.UUCP Usenet Netnews
AKCS Conferencing
Akcslink,
Uucp and e-mail
Big Sky Telegraph bigsky.UUCP AKCS Conferencing
Uucp and e-mail
9 Fidonet BBS - MSDOS Systems
(BBS Names) (Location) (Node) (Protocols)
Gold Mill, Colo Spgs, CO 128/67 Fidonet, Ufgate
Rivendale, Air Academy,CO 128/17 Fidonet
Ramnet, Colo Spgs, CO 128/14 Fidonet
Grey Haven, Colo Spgs, CO 128/81 Fidonet
Dialoge Bd, Pueblo CO 307/12 Fidonet
Tiny Sky, Dillon, MT 3400/3 Fidonet, Ufgate
Silver Bow BBS, Butte MT 3400/4 Fidonet
Big Horn BBS, Cody, WY 303/7 Fidonet
???? Indianapolis, IN ? Fidonet
3 Internet Nodes
Colo Supernet, Boulder csn.org TCP/IP, Sun Workstation
UUCP,, e-mail
Colo Supernet, Colo Spgs csn.org TCP/IP, Cisco Server
UUCP, e-mail
Nerus, Plasma Fusion Center Vax
nerus.pfc.mit.edu TCP/IP e-mail
So how is all this connected up? Below is a crude ascii 'map' of
the network connections for this course. If there is no (fido)
or (unix) listed, the contact is by direct dial modem.
Chinook, Montana
/ Saco, MT
Butte. MT / /
Silver Bow BBS / /
(fido) / _ _ _ _ _ /
| / / Cody, WY
| Dillon, MT / / Big Horn BBS ---- Cody HS
Tiny Sky----Big Sky Tel // _ _ _(fido)
(fido) (Unix) / Cambridge, Mass
\ \ _ (uucp)_ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ MIT
\ \ / / (vax)
\ / \ / / |_ _Bitnet
\ / \/ / |
\ _ (fido)_ (fido)/ \ / Boulder, CO
\ / / \ / Internet Unix
\ / / \ / |(tcp/ip)
Black Forest CO \ Colorado Springs CO |
Air Acad HS Goldmill OldColoCity Colo Supernet
Rivendale BBS ---(fido)--FIDO--(ufgate)--UNIX--(uucp)--Cisco Server
(fido) |\ --------------------
/ | \ \ / \
/ | Liberty HS \ Palmer HS \
| | (fido) (fido) \
| | \ Agate, CO
| Rampart HS, CS,CO \ Agate School
| (fido) \
| Pueblo,CO
(fido) Pueblo Cnty HS <---->Dialog BBS
Indianapolis, IN (fido)
Park Tudor HS
The 'ufgate' between Old Colo City Unix system and Gold Mill Fido is
the key 'bridge' between the Fidonet world and Usenet-Internet world
that makes this course by 'distributed' conferencing possible. (By
the middle of this course we shall add, via the Internet, 'mailist'
ways to observe/participate, also.)
Dr. Johnston posts his lessons, comments directly into the Chaos_S2
BBS/Conference on Goldmill or Old Colo City, or by e-mail via the
Internet, they will be automatically 'distributed' into the
corresponding Fido (echo), Unix (Newsgroup and AKCS Conference) by fast
(9.6,14.4,19.2) modems on all other systems.
When students reply, their comments flow back through the net, be
redistributed to all other systems in the course, and Dr. Johnston will
read them either on Gold Mill, Old Colo, or by maillist e-mail from the
Old Colo City 'server.' Some students will post directly to their school
Fido (Air Academy, Butte HS) to a local-dial Fido (Liberty, Rampart,
Pueblo County High, Cody High), or directly to one of the two Unix
systems running BBS/Conferencing software (Agate, Palmer, Chinook, and
Saco)
We may, as the course progresses, permit interested outsiders to
'follow' the course, and all comments, lessons, files posted to it, by a
maillist technique over the Internet, Usenet, or Bitnet,. And perhaps we
can even do one experiment by the technique of sending 'knowbots' - or
messages from you, wherever you are, to tell powerful computers on the
Internet, to perform some math or information task for you and send the
results back, as from a Supercomputer, by e-mail.
Everyone does not have to be directly connected to powerful centrally
located, distant computers to communicate widely, or use the power of
those systems. Future computing and communicating will be far more
'distributed' than anyone seems to realize. Including graphical
displays. Which we also will get into later in this course.
Dave Hughes
Old Colorado City Communications
dave%oldcolo@csn.org
Fido 1/128/67
daveh@csn.org
