[1200] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Navigating Report
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Smith Richard J)
Mon Sep 14 12:21:04 1992
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 11:11:00 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: Smith Richard J <rjs4808@usl.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
**Moderator's note: Bravo to Richard! Thanks for your hard work to make
the NAVIGATING workshop successful.**
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
NAVIGATING THE INTERNET: AN INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP is over. Eight
hundred and seventy eight participants from over 23 countries
completed the three week introduction to the resources on the
Internet workshop. An evaluation has been mailed with the
responses now being tabulated.
The workshop was successful despite--administrative foul ups, an
interruption by hurricane Andrew which it pasted within 30 mile of
Lafayette, and strategic oversights.
My apologies to the many who registered for the workshop but were
not included. I expected a response of 30 to 50 persons; the
tremendous response was more than one person could handle on such
short notice. For example, if I can't read my e-mail I save it
into a file for later reading. I found such a file dated August
3rd, after the workshop, that had 37 e-mail messages from people
who wanted to participate in the workshop. The first mass e-
mailings was a welcome and introduction. That first e-mailing
produced many 'cannot deliver' responses. I immediately deleted the
addresses from the mailing list not realizing that many of them
were legitimate and that the 'cannot delivery' message meant that
the delivery would be tried again at a future date. Several
administrative blunders prevented the number of participants from
being over 1,000.
Hurricane Andrew came by in the middle of the workshop. The
hurricane and the later tropical depression reeked havoc on the
network. USL was down for two days and other networks were out of
commission causing a break in the workshop.
The large response to the workshop made it doubtful that the
interactive portion would be possible. How could I answer
questions from such a number? Bill jerkins of Cornell suggested
and implemented a listserve for participants to join and ask
question. Other participants provided answers to questions. Two
hundred and ninety eight persons subscribed to the listserve
NAVIGATING to make the workshop truly interactive.
Cooperation provided additional interactiveness of the workshop.
Although the original registration form for the workshop pointed
out that it would be UNIX based many registered with different
operating systems. Some knew that and wanted to participate anyway
while others did not know the difference and were confused when
UNIX instructions did not work. Jim Gerland of the University of
Buffalo provided a VMS copy of the early UNIX sessions.
I'm am still getting requests to sign-up for the workshop. The
original posting had the dates of the workshop, however copies
found there way throughout the network and some of them lost the
dates. One or to print versions of the registration form ended up
in college or university newsletters--again without the dates of
the conference.
Is Internet training needed? I think the response made it clear
there is a need. Is using the Internet as a training tool
feasible? The evaluation will help in measuring the effectiveness
of this workshop and the use of the Internet in such endeavors. A
cursory look at comments from the participants is promising.
That's the preliminary report of Navigating the Internet: An
Interactive Workshop. Now for my graduates I have to have a
Navigating the Internet alumni reunion in New Orleans next year at
ALA.
Richard J. Smith
University of Southwestern Louisiana
rs@usl.edu
