FIDO/K12Net: DIRT CHEAP GATEWAY TO THE GLOBAL VILLAGE FOR THE RURAL MASSES (c) February 8, 1995 by Jack Crawford Wayne-Finger Lakes Area Teacher Resource Center FIDOnet 1:260/620 jack.crawford@f620.n260.z1.fidonet.org jcc@aruba.nysaes.cornell.edu There's a grassroots movement throughout the world that is quietly empowering "have not" rural communities by introducing them to the "global village" of international telecommunications on a local phone call with no fees . Conspicuously absent from this is the inherent exploitativeness of commercial environments or the taxpayer burden of the "too-much-government" cost-ineffectiveness of centralized technocracies. Rural citizens, as a group, tend to remain unaware of the richness of telecommunications-based activites and resources the big cities enjoy because they are "long distance to the rest of the civilized world". While fee-based online resources have been available to rural folks for years, few seem to make much use of them. Whenever a rural person is online, the "meter is running". The result is that use of commercial and real-time Internet services is kept to an absolute minimum. In most cases, that means no use at all. Rural people are just not in the "habit" of using online resources as a result. The "toll booths" on the Information Highway turn rural people off to telecommunications! As a result of these factors, rural educators, students and community members tend to have little or no initial experience with, or even a working concept of, the online world. Most often they just plain don't understand the critcal importance of becoming involved with telecommunications in the first place and, therefore, are unable to self-justify the significant costs of using of online resources in their everyday lives. They are "out of the loop". They need a place to start--something to "whet their appe tites" that will allow them to spend hours and hours exploring the Net--and do it very cheaply, if not for free! Rural people are beginning to discover the unique advantages and affordability of FIDOnet BBS's, not as as alternative to pay-for services, but as a starting point toward them. As of February, 1995, FIDOnet is a worldwide community of nearly 35,000 inter-networked, yet independantly owned, operated and funded electronic Bulletin Board Systems or "BBS's". (Five years ago there were only 6,000!) Roughly half of these are in the United States--that's slightly more than one for every one of the 14,000 or so school districts in the country. Any medium-sized rural town in the U.S. probably has at least one FIDOnet BBS that is open to the general public with no fees. This is a non-comm ercial environment that has been aptly described as "militantly free", both in terms of cost and spirit. There are few "toll booths"! FIDOnet is a community that is soley regulated by market forces. It is not an "organization" nor is it subject to the fickleness, ineffficencies or political agendas of any government, bureacracy or centralized funding source. FIDOnet is not encumbered by technocracy. Maybe this is why it works so well.... FIDOnet's store-and-forward technology has evolved through many generations of incessant, international tinkering in the last ten years to become surprizingly sophisticated yet still amazingly affordable. The equipment, budget and technical expertise required to set up and maintain a FIDOnet BBS capable of serving the students, teachers and taxpayers of a rural community is usually well within the range of any school district with a bit of resolve. Startup costs, including software, modem and a brand new co mputer, can easily be below $1,300 in the U.S and much cheaper if used equipment is available! Technical and training expertise is developed locally to meet the needs of local people and can provide rural students with career-track experience pointing directly to the telecommunications industry. The school and it's community learn "how to fish" rather than being "fed a fish for the day"... Note, too, that the bulk of the intial expense goes to tang ible assets such as computers and software rather than consu mable services. Telephone lines needed are inexpensive voice grade and costs for substantial network content to serve the entire community, even if obtained overlong distance, is similar to that of a few postage stamps per day. It just doesn't get any cheaper than this... In addition to providing the ability to send private "email" letters between anyone on a FIDOnet BBS or the Internet, there are also literally thousands of one-to-many public conferences available. These allow people to publicly discuss, debate or ask questions about the things that matter to them with other people all over the world. The nature of these conferences may be very broad in scope such as "politics" or "cooking" or can be narrowly defined to such topics as "beekeeping", "quilting", issues involv ing church & state, etc. An "article" posted in a conference will be "echoed", without editing or censorship, to every other BBS on earth that is carrying it where anyone may read and respond to it. This is like a neural net which spans the planet, providing a place for a "meeting of the minds" that is not limited by distance or time... and is freely accessible to the general public on a local phone call! This is the last real bastion of free press! Graphical and multi-media interfaces, multi-gigabyte harddrives and multi-disc CD-ROM drives on many FIDO BBS's make massive file resources available in an environment that is attractive, easy to use and available on a local phone call. FIDOnet technology is also quite at home with satellite distribution as well as the gating of USEnet newsgroups and Internet email. FIDO BBS system software is usually dirt cheap if not free and can be surprizingly adept at dealing with multiple phoneline and local area netw ork environments. Approximately 600 FIDO BBS's worldwide also carry the K12Net feed which provides content directly oriented to elementary and secondary school curriculum and student use. (There are over 100 K12Net BBS's in New Zealand, alone!) Most of the three dozen K12Net conference areas, which cover the the traditional curriculum areas and provide vehicles for teacher-designed international classroom projects, are also gated to the Internet as the k12.* hierarchy. Some schools use a "sneaker net" approach to allow the ir students to interact in email and conferences in classrooms without phonelines or modems using offline mail readers. (Lack of phone lines in the classrooms and the prospect of sizeable phone bills are the single biggest barrier to any kind of telecom in schools!!!) As rural schools are usually at the geographic center of activities for their local communities, they are probably the most logical organization to house, operate and provide institutional credibility to a FIDO/K12Net BBS to serve that community. BBS's operated by a rural school can provide a valuable public service that helps to promote further understanding, collaboration and support between schools and their communities. Schools which set up and operate their own FIDO/K12Net BBS's develop their own in-ho use base of technical and training expertise. They learn how to "fish to feed themselves" rather than being "fed a fish for the day". I have set up and provide technical support to over a dozen FIDO/K12Net BBS's in schools within an hour's drive from where I live out here in a rural area of western New York State characterized by cow pastures, cornfields and long distance phone bills. The demand for them is growing steadily, probably because schools are finding that setup and operational costs are so low that funding is simply not an issue in many cases. My observation is that their use is helping to build a base of community advocacy for greater telecom capabilities. For the first time, rural students, teachers and taxpayers can now spend *hours* exploring the online worlds of email, newsgroups and file libraries without running up a phone bill or blowing their VISA cards or classroom budgets into oblivion or placing a burden on their taxpayers. They finally have a reason to buy one of those "modem-thingies" and to support funding for even greater telecom capabilites in their schools. (This lack of advocacy is a very important, though ofte n overlooked or underestimated aspect of getting people involved with telecom, particularly in schools.) People first need to learn how to ride a bicycle before you can expect them to want...or be willing to pay for a Harley! Those that have been logging onto our FIDO/K12Net BBS's are beginning learn how to "ride"... FIDO/K12Net may not be have the Web-dazzle or gopher-glitter of the real-time Internet or commercial services but it is far more affordable and accessible to the average rural neophyte modem user at home or in school. It is also vastly less intiimidating. It is telecom for the rural masses that can provide more "bang for the buck" than any other technology. Period! And, overall, it really does a pretty good job with email, conferencing and file libraries which are the real "meat and potatoes" of online use in the first place. It is the "bicycle path" next to the information highway... It is a sensible way for the "have-nots" of the world to start learning how to "ride a bicycle" so that, some day soon, they'll want a "Harley"... Jack Crawford, Wayne-Finger Lakes Teacher Resource Center, 703 E. Maple, #10 Eisenhower Hall, Newark, NY, 14513-1863. Voice: 315/331-1584, fax: 315/331-1587 Widespread non-commerical dissemination of this document is authorized and encouraged but only if done in its entirety and the copyright notice remains intact. (Jack Crawford)