Since the author also requests remuneration, we would ask these

O >> Odd de Presno. All >> Since the author also requests remuneration, we would ask these

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The contents and the quality of the discussion are what
separates one online conference from others.

How a conference grows into something useful, depends in part on
the features of the software used by the online service. But this
is much less important than the kind of people you meet there and
their willingness to contribute.
Messages in the IBM Hardware Forum on CompuServe are divided
into 11 sections. Section 2 is called Printers' utilities. If you
have problems with an old Epson FX-80 printer, send requests for
help to "All" (=to everybody) and store it in this section.
CompuServe has over one million subscribers (1993). They call
in from all over the place to join the IBM Hardware forum. Some are
there to show off competence (read: to sell their expertise).
Others visit to find solutions to a problem, or simply to learn.
A conference with many users increases your chances of meeting
others with relevant know-how. As always, the quality of the
people is the first requirement of a good conference.
Professional 'Sysops' moderate the discussion in IBMHW. They
get up to 15 percent of what you pay CompuServe for using their
forum. To them, being a sysop is a profession. They use a fair
amount of time trying to make the forum a lively and interesting
place.
The Printers/utilities section is not just about Epson FX-80.
Its members have hundreds of different printers, each with their
own set of user problems. Let's use this to explain differences
between some conferencing systems.
Each message in CompuServe's forums contains the sender's name
(his local email address), subject, date, and the text itself. We
call this the 'bulletin board model'. Here, a message typically
looks like this:

#: 24988 S10/Portable Desktops
22-Jul-91 10:05:38
Sb: #T5200 425meg HDD
Fm: Gordon Norman 72356,370
To: Menno Aartsen 72611,2066 (X)

Menno-

Can you share the HD specs on that 425'er...random access time,
transfer rate, MTBF, etc.?

Gordon

This message may not be of interest to you. Each day, hundreds of
messages OUTSIDE your area of interest are being posted. You do NOT
want to read these messages.
CompuServe allows selective reading of messages. You can select
all messages containing a given word or text string in the subject
title ('Sb:' above). You can read threads of messages from a given
message number (replies, and replies to replies). You can read all
messages to/from a given person, from a given message number, and
from a given date. There are many options.
The PARTIcipate conferencing software functions diametrically
different from CompuServe's forum software. PARTI is used on TWICS
(Japan), Unison (U.S.A.), NWI (U.S.A.), and The Point (can be
accessed through a gateway from CompuServe).
PARTI lets the user log on using an alias. For example, he can
use the identity 'BATMAN'. You may never get to know the true name
of the other person. On the other hand, this allows people to talk
about controversial topics, which they would otherwise not want to
have their names associated with.
Anyone can start a conference. It can be public, private or a
combination. Combination conferences allow public review of the
messages in the conference, but restrict the number of people who
can contribute to the discussion.
Enter 'write', and PARTI will prompt you with "Enter the text
of your note, then type .send or .open to transmit." Enter the
welcome text for your new conference, like in this example:

"This conference is based on a series of articles about
shareware and public domain programs for MSDOS computers, which
I wrote for publication in England.
Since the editor cheated me and they never reached the printing
press, I've decided to make them available online instead of
letting them rot on my hard disk. Join to read, discuss or
(hopefully) enjoy! "

When done, I entered ".open odd de presno", added the name of the
conference ("MSDOS TIPS") and a short description ("GOOD PD AND
SHAREWARE PROGRAMS").

The conference was presented to the other PARTI users on TWICS like
this:

"MSDOS TIPS" by ODD DE PRESNO, Feb. 23, 1990 at 11:57 about
GOOD PD AND SHAREWARE PROGRAMS (7 notes)

Few systems of the bulletin board model let users start their own
conferences at will. All new topics must be stored in a given
structure. The administrators (sysops) of the service manage the
evolution of the 'conference room'. After a while, old messages may
even be deleted to make room for new.
In PARTI, conference messages are organized under a topic, or
any sub-topics that can be derived from the main topic.
Conferences are modeled after their counterparts in the face-
to-face world. They start with an introduction followed by a
discussion about a narrow topic, like here:

"SMART PEOPLE" by MACBETH on Jan. 4, 1992 at 12:27, about WHO ARE
THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST (504 characters and 17 notes).

In this example above, the welcome message is 504 characters long.
Following that, there are 17 other messages (called notes).
Notes are stored without individual subject headers and the
name of a recipient. Everything is posted to 'the group'.
If CompuServe message above had been posted on PARTI, then the
first five lines might have been reduced to:

12 (of 12) SHABBY DOG Jul. 22, 1991 at 10:05 (119 characters)

On PARTI, all participants read all notes. Selective reading must
be done in other ways (by searching conference contents).
These two conferencing models seem to attract different types
of discussions. PARTI has given birth to more discussions on topics
like these (from PARTI on The Point, January 1992):

"HELLO BEEP" by THE SHADOW on Sept. 17, 1991 at 19:20, about
BEEP'S ADVENTURES IN JAPAN, AND THE LIKE (840 characters and 22
notes).

"MEMORIES" by LOU on Dec. 21, 1991 at 12:31, about .......I
REMEMBER WHEN...... (423 characters and 1 notes).

"AMENDMENT II 1991" by PASSIN THRU on Dec. 25, 1991 at 20:55,
about OUR RIGHTS TO OWN AND POSSESS FIREARMS, AND THE MYTH
REGARDING ASSAULT WEAPONS. (3036 characters and 38 notes).

"TV SHOWS" by THE SHADOW on Nov. 16, 1990 at 18:00, about
DISCUSSION OF TELEVISION SHOWS (105 characters and 37 notes).

"PHILOSOPHY FOR AMATEURS" by MACBETH on April 13, 1990 at 10:08,
about TALKING ABOUT THINKING (187 characters and 97 notes).

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOTO" by PONDER on Jan. 2, 1992 at 14:34, about
AND I BET HE THOUGHT I FORGOT. (86 characters and 15 notes).

"ONLINE LOTTERY" by DEEDUB on Jan. 3, 1992 at 07:40, about
MULTIPLYING OUR CHANCES TO WIN THE LOTTERY (1238 characters and
62 notes).

"WHO SHOT KENNEDY" by MATT on Jan. 3, 1992 at 22:29, about THE
ASSASINATION OF JOHN F. KENNEDY; THOUGHTS, COMMENTS, QUESTIONS
AND THEORIES! (529 characters and 83 notes).

"THE ECONOMY" by LOU on Jan. 5, 1992 at 16:40, about THE ECONOMY,
AS IT AFFECTS US ALL. (167 characters and 49 notes).

"PUERTO RICO" by PACKER on Jan. 18, 1992 at 20:47, about PARA
DISCUTIR ASUNTOS PUERTORIQUENA (166 characters and 9 notes).

Systems using the bulletin board model rarely have conferences like
"MEMORIES." In PARTI, one-note conferences are allowed to stay. In
the bulletin board environment, they soon disappear.
You can probably still join MEMORIES on the Point to add your
own feelings or point-of-views.
In larger PARTI conferences, the notes can be read like a
book. Often, side discussions appear like 'branches' on a 'tree'.
Join and read them, if you want to. Or just pass.
The bulletin board systems (including CompuServe's forums) and
PARTIcipate are at two extremes of the spectrum of conference
systems. Toward the BBS model, there are systems like FidoNet Echo,
RBBS-PC, and PortaCom. Toward the PARTI side, there are systems like
Caucus.

Many companies set up bulletin board systems to provide technical
support to customers. McAfee Associates, Inc. in California is one
example. They offer technical information, help, upgrade software,
list of agents, technical bulletins with lists of products, and new
products through agents' support BBSes all over the world. For
example, when in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago call the Opus
Networx BBS at (819) 628-4023.
Setting up a professional BBS is not very expensive. You can
easily have 32 people online to the same conference simultaneously
on a standard 80386-based PC, running Xenix and Caucus conferencing
software. This is what the Washington Information Service Corp. in
U.S.A. did. There's an abundance of software to choose from.
Many companies rent private 'conference rooms' on commercial
online services rather than doing it in-house. The advantage is
easier access to an established multi-user system and user base.
Microsoft, Toshiba, Quarterdeck, Digital Research, Tandy,
Novell and hundreds of others rent public support forum space on
CompuServe to keep in touch with customers all over the world.
Others rent space on regional bulletin boards.
Other corporate applications of such services include internal
organizational development and communications, and coordination of
projects.
On Norwegian bulletin boards the main language is Norwegian. In
France, expect French. Local systems usually depend on messages in
the local language.
Services catering to a larger geographical area often have a
different policy. English is the most common language for
international discussions. Spanish possibly number two. Example:
TWICS in Japan is an English language system. Its Spanish language
conference ESPANOL has participants from Japan, Mexico and Norway.
On MetaNet (Arlington, U.S.A.) the conferences are divided into
conference areas. One area was called The Salon. The welcome
message said: 'All conferences and responses posted here may freely
be ported to other conferencing systems'. MetaNet regularly 'ports'
(exchanges) conference notes with systems in Europe, Asia and North
America.
Exchanging conferences have long traditions in the bulletin
board world. To some, it is routine to call Thunderball Cave BBS in
Oslo to discuss photography with people in California. New messages
are exchanged daily across country boundaries.
The global web of connections between computers enables us to
discuss with people living in other parts of the world, as if they
were living next door.

Things Take Time!
-----------------
How long does it take a message to get from Hyougo in Japan to
Saltrod in Norway? Or to Dominique Christian in Paris?
Sometimes, mail travels from mailbox service to mailbox service
in seconds. That is usually the case with messages from my mailbox
in Norway to KIDLINK's LISTSERV in North Dakota, U.S.A.
Messages that must go through many gateways may take more time.
How long it takes, depends on the degree of automation in the mail
systems involved, and how these systems have been connected to the
global matrix of networks.
Speed is high if the computers are interconnected with fixed,
high-capacity lines. This is not so for mail from Oslo to Dominique
in Paris. His mail is routed through a system in London and is
forwarded once per day through a dial-up connection. It usually
takes at least one day to reach the destination.

News
----
Most large news agencies have online counterparts. You can often
read their news online before it appears in print. This is the case
with news from sources like NTB, Agence France-Presse, Associated
Press, Kyodo News Report (Japan), Reuters, Xinhua English Language
News Service (China) and TASS. Some news is only made available in
electronic form.
News may be read in several ways, depending on what online
service you use:
* From a list of headlines. Enter a story's number to receive
its full text. The news may be split up into groups, like Sports,
International news, Business, and Entertainment.
* Some services let you hook directly into a news agency's
'feed line' to get news as it is being made available. At 11.02,
11.04, 11.15, etc.
* News may be 'clipped' and stored in your mailbox twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a week. Clipping services search articles
for occurrences of your personal keyword phrases while you're
offline. In this way, you can monitor new products, companies,
people, and countries, even when you're not online.
NewsFlash is NewsNet's electronic clipping service, a powerful
resource that lets you monitor NewsNet's newsletters for topics of
interest.
On the Executive News Service (CompuServe), you can search for
words in story headlines. You can also search for first three lines
of text from 8,000 stories/day from Washington Post, OTC NewsAlert,
Associated Press, United Press International and Reuters Financial
News Wire.
Newspapers used to receive news through the wires before the
online user. This built-in delay has now been removed on many
services. Industry and professional news is usually available
online long before it appears in print.

Databases
---------
Some years ago, most databases just contained references to
articles, books and other written or electronic sources of
information. The typical search result looked like this:

0019201 02-88-68
TRIMETHOPRIM-SULFAMETHOXAZOLE in CYST Fluid from Autosomal
Dominant POLYCYSTIC KIDNEYS.
Elzinga L.W.; et al. W.M. Bennett, Dept. of Med., Oregon Hlth.
Sci. Univ., 3101 Southwest Sam Jackson Park Rd., Portland,
OR 97201.

Kid. Int. 32: 884-888. Dec. 1987

Subfile: Internal Medicine; Family Practice; Nephrology;
Infectious Disease; Clinical Pharmacology; Highlights of General
Medicine

You had to take the reference to a library to get a print copy of
the article. Some services let you to order a copy while online, to
be sent you by mail from a copying service.
Full-text searching is now the rule. When you find an article
of interest, you can have the full text displayed on your screen at
once (normally without accompanying pictures and tables, though).
The search commands are simpler and more powerful.

Just for fun
------------
Many online services focus on your leisure time. They offer reviews
and news about movies, video, music, and sport. There are forums
for stamp and coin collectors, travel maniacs, passionate cooks,
wine tasters, and other special interest groups. Besides, many
services are entertaining in themselves.
Large, complex adventure games, where hundreds of users can
play simultaneously, are popular choices. People sit glued to the
computer screen for hours.
'Chat', this keyboard-to-keyboard contact-phone type of
simultaneous conversation between from two and up to hundreds of
persons, is also popular. It works like a combination of a social
activity and a role-playing/strategy/fantasy/skill-improving game.
Shopping is the online equivalent of traditional mail order
business. The difference is that you can buy while browsing. Some
commercial services distribute colorful catalogues to users to
support sales. Some distribute pictures of the merchandise by
modem.
You can buy anything from racer fitness equipment and diamonds
to cars. Enter your credit card number and the Chevrolet is yours.
The online mail order business is becoming increasingly global.

Level 5: The user interface
---------------------------
This term describes how the online service is presented to you,
that is, in what form text, pictures and sound appear on your
personal communications computer.
Most online services offer the first three of these four
levels. Some offer more:

1. Menus for novices. The user can select (navigate) by
pressing a figure or a letter.
2. Short menus or lists of commands for the intermediate user.
The user knows some about how the service works, and just
wants a short reminder to help navigate.
3. A short prompt (often just a character, like a "!"), which
tells the expert user where he is in the system right now.
Those knowing the service inside out, don't need reminders
about what word or command to enter at this point.
4. Some services offer automatic access without any menus or
visible prompts at all. Everything happens in a two-way
stream of unintelligent data. The only menus that the user
sees, are those belonging to the program running on his
personal computer.

Some services emphasize colors, graphics and sound. They may
require that users have certain hardware or special add-on cards
in their communications computer. Often, a special communications
program is also needed.
Other services use methods for presenting colors and graphics
already built into their users' computers (and programs).
Colors, graphics and sound are highly desirable in some
applications, like online games and weather forecasts. But even
where it is not important, there will always be many wanting it.
To the professional on a fact-gathering mission, these features
may give slower data transfer and problems when saving text to disk
for later use. Therefore, many prefer ASCII text with no extras.
Sports cars are nice, but for delivering furniture they're
seldom any good. The same applies to the user interfaces. No one is
perfect for all applications.

Level 6: The data transporters
------------------------------
When the online service's host computer is far away, the user often
faces the challenges of:

1. Noise on the line, which may result in unreadable text or
errors in the received material.
2. Expensive long distance calls

There are many alternatives to direct long distance calling. Some
offers better quality data transfers and lower costs.
The regional packet data services used to be a popular option.
In Scandinavia, the offerings of the local PTTs are called Datapak.
Similar services are offered in most countries, often by a national
telephone monopoly.
Competitively priced alternatives are appearing in many
countries as national telecom monopolies are brought to an end. For
example, Infonet, TRI-P, and i-Com compete successfully with former
monopolies for transport of data to and from North America.
The Internet is a global network serving millions of mailboxes.
It provides very cost-efficient mail exchange with private and
public networks throughout the world.
IXI is a packet data network operated by European Research
centers. DASnet offers transport of mail between mail systems that
have no direct connection with each others. (More about this in
Chapter 13.)

Level 7: The user
-----------------
This is you and me. Turn the page to the next chapter and read
about how to use the online services.

Chapter 3: How to use the online services
=========================================

The user interface refers to what you get on your computer screen
and how, when you call an online service. It includes menus and
help screens, and various options to tailor the service to your
personal preferences.

Navigating by menus is simpler
------------------------------
Most online services have menus to make them easier for novices to
use. A typical menu looks like this:

R)ead messages
Q)uick search available messages
W)rite messages
C)omments to Sysop
D)ownload programs
?) for help
G)oodbye. This is enough!

Enter a letter (or ?) to select a function. Enter R to read
messages. There is hardly any need to read the documentation to
use this service.
CompuServe greets European users with this menu:

CompuServe Europe EUROPE

COMPUSERVE EUROPE MAIN MENU

1 About CompuServe
2 What's New
3 Member Assistance
4 Electronic Mail
5 Personal Computer Support
6 Company Information
7 Logon Instructions (Europe)
8 CompuServe Information Service (U.S.)

Enter '8' to get another menu:

CompuServe TOP

1 Member Assistance (FREE)
2 Find a Topic (FREE)
3 Communications/Bulletin Bds.
4 News/Weather/Sports
5 Travel
6 The Electronic MALL/Shopping
7 Money Matters/Markets
8 Entertainment/Games
9 Hobbies/Lifestyles/Education
10 Reference
11 Computers/Technology
12 Business/Other Interests

You can "go" to Associated Press' newswires or the section for
home-schooling in the Education Forum by entering numbers listed in
menus. The service is like a tree with menus by every set of
branches.
A code in the upper right-hand corner of each screen tells you
exactly where you are. The last menu has the code 'TOP' meaning
that this menu is at the 'top of the tree'.
By each CompuServe system prompt, the command GO followed by a
destination code will take you directly to a desired location.
Enter GO IBMHW to go directly to the IBM Hardware Forum.
The GO command will save you time and money. Similar codes and
commands are used on several other online services.
On many systems, the first menu encountered when logging on is
a list of announcements and new offerings. The following is from
GEnie, General Electric's Consumer Information Service (U.S.A.):

GEnie Announcements (FREE)

1. July 1991 GEnie Billing Completed. To review yours, type:....*BILL
2. Hot Summer Nights continues to SIZZLE.........................*HSN
3. NEW...Quality Product and Amazing Value in....................SOFTCLUB
4. LAST CHANCE---Blue GEnie Sweatshirts..........................*ORDER
5. Color hypermedia in Apple II world. HyperStudio RTC in........A2
6. Meet the Product Manager, FREE RTC............................SFRT
7. "Future of Online Gaming" RTC with GEnie Game Designers in....MPGRT
8. A Revolutionary Credit Service - TRW CREDENTIALS..............TRWCREDIT
9. 900 Numbers: Ripoff or Good Business Sense - RTC 8/11 9PM.....RADIO
10. Air Warrior Convention set for Sept.26-29. in Washington......AIR
11. SEARS Fall/Winter Catalog On-line NOW.........................SEARS
12. How to Sell your CRAFTS for Profit............................HOSB
13. Stellar Warrior Campaign starts with a FREE weekend...........WARRIOR
14. Followup Investment RTC with Mickey Friedman in...............REAL ESTATE
15. Federation II, the adult space fantasy........................FED

Enter #, elp, or to continue?

At the 'Enter #' prompt, enter '7' to go directly to the "Future of
Online Gaming" conference (RTC=Round Table Conference). Enter H for
Help, or press Return to get to the systems' main menu.
You can "go" to selected services by entering a videotext page
number code or a number (selected from the menu). Type 'mail' to
get to your mailbox, 'backgammon' to play, or 'SEARS' to visit the
online version of this North American shoppers' paradise.
'Mail' has page number 200. Enter 'm 200' to go there directly.
To go to NewsBytes' technical news reports by subject, select "5"
from menu page number 316.
GEnie even has a faster way. Like some other services, it let
you stack commands. Instead of issuing one command, and then wait
for the system to respond before issuing the next command, stacking
allows you to put all commands on one line. The command "m 316;5"
will take you directly to choice 5 from the menu on page 316
without displaying intermediate menus.
Many online services use the same template. They have commands
like GO SERVICE-NAME, JOIN SERVICE-NAME (or just J), DELTA SERVICE-
NAME, or just the code or name of the offering as in 'mail' and
'sears' above.
Entering H or ? (for help) usually give you assistance. Few
services are fussy about whether you use lower or capital letters
in commands.
On some services, and especially if a selection requires just
a letter or a number, you don't even have to press return to make
it happen. This method is used on many bulletin boards.
Some codes are standard. This is particularly the case with "?",
H, or Help for more information.

Test drive
----------
Several commercial systems let you try the service for free or at
lower rates. You can check what's out there without paying for the
exploratory connect time, and get some free training in how to use
the service.
CompuServe's Practice Forum (GO PRACTICE) does not carry any
connect charges, but applicable communication surcharges are still
in effect. They also have a free 'Guided Tour'.
Free trials are particularly useful before a search in an
expensive database. Use DialIndex on Dialog. Orbit has DBIN (The
database Index), and Data-Star has CROS. They are master indexes to
the databases on the system. First, select a general subject area,
then enter your search terms. The systems will respond with lists
of databases and hit counts.
Note: You must go to the 'real' databases for results. You
cannot retrieve actual information during a test drive.

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