Your visions of possibilities for the future are very exciting.
One of the things that frightens me is the idea of YET ANOTHER layer of
technology (in addition to TV, newspapers) which is controlled only by the
wealthy elite and which most folks have no access to -- with computers --
no access to even using, much less posting their own material onto.
That's why I think that things like NativeNet, PeaceNet, and the Fourth
World Documentation Project (to name just a few) are so very exciting. And
important.
>I like to see these mailing lists as a simple prototype of a kind of
>communications mechanism that can do far more than what we're presently
>doing. We should probably be investigating some of the newer technologies,
>such as gopher, WAIS, and World Wide Web (which I heard being referred to
>at a conference at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government last
>summer as "dub-dub-dub" :-). These technologies can enable us to create
>searchable databases containing sounds and images as well as textual
>material, for those equipped to deal with such things.
This sounds utterly cool.
>But in addition to providing a tool for scholars whose main interest in
>these subjects is academic, these electronic resources can also be a
>good source of information for activists wanting to work on specific
>issues,
I think about the 60s ... where so many movements began ... AIM, the Black
Panthers, the feminist movement (second wave), gay liberation, a strong
anti-war movement ... those movements were all connected and fed, in part,
by a lively, diverse, alternate press. I also remember that one of the
priorities of the government's COINTELPRO movement was to destroy that
alternative press movement ... by one way or another.
Electronic communication has (to my mind) all the possibilities of the
alternate press movement of years ago, plus much more. Educational
possibilites. Discussion group possibilities. Requests for letter writing
campaigns, etc. can be instantaneous. We can "talk" to people all over the
world.
Most of the news on NativeNet is something which we'll never read in the
mainstream press .. just one aspect.
>And let us not forget indigenous peoples themselves! Rather than being
>merely the *subject* of these discussions and information interchanges,
>let us not forget that communities of indigenous peoples all over the
>world have needs for information and for communications with one another.
>Various efforts have been proposed for linking communities with each
>other to the extent they feel a need to communicate - or perhaps the
>increasing ease of communications can provide a greater incentive.
>
>Back when this enterprise got started in late 1989, I wrote a series of
>articles suggesting to the people then subscribed, who were only a small
>fraction of present subscribers, that we might want to spend some time
>discussing how we could through our collective efforts develop these
>resources beyond what is generally provided by mailing lists. "The
>silence," as they say, "was deafening." Perhaps things have changed
>now - so I would like to put out another call for those interested in
>helping to think through how we might better utilize this medium to take
>part in some behind-the-scenes discussions to plan the evolution of what
>we have into something that extends the system into new areas
Databases, discussion groups, and gateways to other areas ... such as
PeaceNet ... all sound like good ideas.
>I would appreciate anyone who is interested in helping think through
>some of these projects, or who has ideas and proposal for other projects,
What you're describing would certainly take some work, both in terms of
thinking it out and setting it up. To paraphrase Audre Lorde, possibility
is neither instantaneous nor guaranteed.
Ideas I have. Practical skills ... well, the tiny bit of programming I
know was long ago antiquated. But if it gets to the point where some text
entry is needed (and if my carpal tunnel is better!) I'll do what I can to
help.
- Mary Carol
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Comments from NativeNet moderator, Gary Trujillo (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us):
Thanks for the kind words to Mary Carol, who I had the pleasure of
meeting and having lunch with a bit over a month ago, along with
several other NativeNet list members who have an affiliation with the
University of California, where I was once a student myself. I
appreciate her offer of help. There actually is a certain amount of
keyboarding needed, for projects like the bibliographic database,
though a lot of that data has already been entered by a NativeNet
member living in Europe, who has worked on it over the past couple
of years. I hope to be able to announce a prototype of that system
for subscribers to test during the upcoming months. I'm sure that
ongoing maintenance will be required once the database is operational,
which is where folks like Mary Carol might want to contribute their
energies.
As to PeaceNet, it is one name under which IGC, the Institute for
Global Communications, headquartered in San Francisco, California,
operates. The NativeNet lists have been linked with counterparts on
IGC and its sister APC systems around the world (GreenNet in the U.K.,
Web in Canada, Pegasus in Australia, NordNet in Scandanavia, Ecuanex
in Ecuador, etc.) since late 1989, shortly after the inception of
the original NativeNet mailing list. Subscribers to any of these
systems have access to the NativeNet material under the following
electronic conference names, linked to the NativeNet lists as shown:
IGC/APC LISTSERV description
conference name list name
gen.nativenet NATIVE-L general information exchange
web.native First Peoples of Canada
hr.indigenous human rights of indigenous peoples
indig.rights.oz Australian aboriginal rights
rainfor.general rainforest environment & peoples
native.lang NAT-LANG Native language
native.edu NAT-EDU Native education
native.health NAT-HLTH Native health
native.1492 NAT-1492 Columbus quincentenary
(All articles from NATIVE-L are automatically relayed to gen.nativenet,
and most articles from gen.nativenet, web.native, hr.indigenous, and
indig.rights.oz are relayed to NATIVE-L. Some articles from rainfor.
general (those dealing with indigenous peoples) are also relayed to
NATIVE-L. The NATCHAT list is not available as an electronic confer-
ence on IGC/APC systems, but members of those systems can subscribe
to it via the mailing list, using their email accounts.)
IGC conferences are more convenient to access than LISTSERV-based
mailing lists, since it is possible to access any article ever
posted to one of the conferences (which are akin to Usenet news-
groups), and to search articles based on keywords in the subject
lines, and since one need not deal with each new article as it is
posted - you can choose which articles you want to read without
having to make a decision about each article. If you now have
free access to email, you probably want to stay subscribed to
the LISTSERV. But if you or someone you know expects losing this
access (e.g. upon graduation), the IGC service might be attractive
for you.
IGC is a fee-for-service operation, available at a reasonable hourly
cost from anywhere within the United States (and the same holds true
for Web with respect to Canada, etc.). IGC can also be accessed via
the "telnet" command on systems connected to Internet.
To get more information on the PeaceNet system offered by IGC, use
the "ftp" command if your system is so equipped. Start by typing
one of the following:
ftp igc.org
or
ftp igc.apc.org
or
ftp 192.82.108.1
When you get the "ftp>" prompt, enter:
cd pub
get peacenet_brochure
You can (if you know how to deal with IBM-PC or Macintosh programs)
also download from this same directory one of the files "sim-pc.zip"
(237Kbytes - for IBM-PC) or "sim-mac.sea.hqx" (274K - for Macintosh),
which present a simulation of IGC functions, to give you an experience
of using the system.
Don't forget to use the "bin" command before downloading either of
these files, in order to preserve their 8-bit integrity!
bin
and
get sim-pc.zip
or
get sim-mac.sea.hqx
To disconnect from the ftp archive, enter:
bye
If you are using an IBM-PC to access IGC, and plan to call in via the
Sprintnet packet-switched network, which provides local phone call
access in major cities throughout the U.S., please ask me about the
"Global Link" communications software, which can make your use of IGC
much easier and cheaper. (A test version of the software is available
in a subdirectory of "/pub" in the ftp archive.)
If you do not have access to ftp, or find the following procedure more
convenient, you can also access the PeaceNet brochure via e-mail.
Just send a message to "listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu" containing the text:
get peacenet brochure native-l
(that's the numeral "1" in "tamvm1" and the letter "l" in "native-l").
For more information on IGC services, send a message to the address
"peacenet@igc.apc.org"