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... 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 design setubal 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 setubal web traffic 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 setubal web traffic 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, design setubal 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 Dialog, you need an account to log on.
Infinity Link Browse book, music, software, video-cassette and
laser-disk catalogs through setubal web traffic this system based in
Malvern, Penn. Use gopher to connect to
columbia.ilc.com
Log on as: cas
The Internet Company Sort of a service bureau, this company, based in
Cambridge, Mass., is working with several publishers
on Internet-related products. Its Electronic
Newsstand offers snippets and special
subscription rates to a number of national
magazines, from the New Republic to the New
Yorker. Use gopher to connect to
enews.com
MarketBase You can try the classified-ads system developed
by this company in Santa Barbara, Calif., by
gopher to connect to
mb.com
O'Reilly and Associates Best known for its "Nutshell" books on Unix,
O'Reilly runs three Internet services. The gopher
server, at
setubal web traffic ora.com
provides information about the company and its
books. It posts similar information in the
biz.oreilly.announce Usenet newsgroup. Its
Global Network Navigator, accessible through the
World-Wide Web, is a sort of online magazine that
lets users browse through interesting services
and catalogs.
13.2 FYI
The com-priv mailing list is the place to discuss issues surrounding
the commercialization and the privatization of the Internet. To
subscribe (or un-subscribe), send an e-mail request to com-priv-
request@psi.com.
Mary Cronin's book, "Doing Business on t ... |
