In <23q1a2$fif@usenet.rpi.edu> speights@iear.arts.rpi.edu
(Arlen Speights) writes:
> baylor@daisy.cc.utexas.edu (Baylor) writes:
> > So can individual communities/nations/rezs get on the net
> >without being part of some big school/R&D lab? Who would pay?
> I don't know that tribal offices would have use for a full
> internet hookup in the state that the net is in now...
I agree. Internet can be used to carry messages without the need for the
"end user" to be directly connected to the Internet. In fact, my own
connection, which is certainly sufficient to permit me to manage the
NativeNet mailing lists, including automatic routing of articles to remote
moderators for their approval and for control of the LISTSERVs, as well as
the gateway with Usenet, is done by means of a kind of connection which I
feel is readily available at no cost or a very low cost in most parts of the
U.S. and Canada, and in parts of Central and South America. Such a link does
not require a direct Internet connection. Though I myself have a complete
UNIX system, which supports the UUCP protocol that is used for this kind of
connection, there is public-domain UUCP software available for the IBM PeeCee
(and its compatible clones) and Apple Macintoshes which will do the job quite
nicely.
In fact-- I have just sent a configured copy of one such UUCP program for
the IBM PC to someone who is helping an American Indian cultural center in
upstate New York get connected to our network. With any luck, that system
should be hooked up within the next week, and we may start hearing from them.
Their connection is a free one through a UNIX system at a university local to
them. They have been registered in the "U.S. domain," so they have an address
like mine, which looks for all the world like a regular Internet address (the
correct terminology is that the address is a geographic domain-based address).
Arlen writes:
> ...I imagine that something like FidoNet would suffice for quick
> information eschange and would cost much less.
I believe that the Fidonet relies on direct point-to-point long distance
calls, so it would be bound to be considerably more expensive than a free
or low-cost connection to a local site using the UUCP protocol.
> Most tribal offices that
> I've seen have at least a couple of desktop machines that could
> hang a modem off of it and transfer files. The drawbacks would
> be that it's not terribly accessible to tribe members where
> that's a problem...
A network could be set up on a reservation so that one system could
serve as a "nexus" for a number of leaf nodes, which could be in
private homes. All that's required is a cheap XT-knockoff, which can
be had these days for not more than a few hundred bucks, if that.
And if we can find a source of tax-writeoff donations or some grant
funding, such machines should be relatively easy to acquire.
> ...and a big concern would be that FBIetc
> snooping would be much easier than on the internet, simply
> because of the low signal-to-noise ratio that we've been
> enjoying lately l-:
For private messages, one can employ off-the-shelf public domain
encryption software, PGP ("pretty good privacy") being the most secure
and the most popular - and it's free!
> Where the money would come from is another problem; maybe the
> kinder-gentler BIA could implement something.
I would be willing to help write a grant proposal to whatever sources
of funding can be identified.
> It doesn't take
> a very powerful computer to just sit with a modem and bounce
> files around, does it?
Not at all!
> And if there were a serious network
> across several reservations, one internet gateway could tie
> folks into the internet for mail and mail-ftp much more cheaply
> than shooting for dedicated internet sites all over.
That's essentially what I am proposing. I know how to do such things,
and am sure there are others around who also have the knowhow to set
things up in their own area.
> That way
> there would be a lot more Indians (that's Culture, not Race!!!)
> in on the discussions that go on here.
An excellent idea. There are already Fido "echo" conferences which
can be linked in, but their members have not thus far been entirely
receptive to a linkage with the Internet-based conferencing world,
both because the cultures are rather different, and there are limits
on the sizes of message files which can be sent and received, and
since it costs Fido sysops real money to transfer messages from one
place to another. Perhaps some ways can be found around these kinds
of problems if we put our heads together, so we can at least draw in
that contingent while we're working on the UUCP-based idea.
> It seems like I remember hearing about an organization that
> goes and convinces big firms to donate their old obsolete 1992
> computers to non-profit and needy organizations. Does anybody
> know about that?
I think Steven's article did a pretty good job of identifying some
possible sources of low-cost hardware, but I'm sure there must be an
organization of the sort that Arlen describes.
In any case, I would be glad to set up a special-purpose mailing list
for those who are interested in working on this project, so that we
can talk about what is needed and how to go about getting it. Feel
free to post a followup to this article for purposes of discussion in
the general forum, but if you know you would like to work on this
project, please drop me a note saying that you'd like to become part
of a working group to study and work on this idea.
Thanks.
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst