CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND AND CONCEPT BACKGROUND NPTN has its origins in a series of research projects con- ducted at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio in the mid-1980's. The first project began in the fall of 1984 when Dr. Tom Grundner, then of CWRU's Department of Family Medicine, set up a single phone line, computerized, "Bulletin Board" system called "St. Silicon's Hospital and Information Dispensary" to test the effectiveness of telecomputing as a means of delivering general health information to the public. The heart of the system was an interactive area where lay people could call in using their home, school, or business comput- ers, leave medically-related questions, and have them answered by a board-certified family physician within 24 hours. The experi- ment proved so successful that it attracted the attention of the Information Systems Division of AT&T, the Ohio Bell Telephone Company, and University Hospitals of Cleveland, who supported a larger project to expand and develop this interactive concept. Based on these donations, Dr. Grundner began work on a full- scale "community computer system" on an AT&T 3B2/400 computer with ten incoming phone lines. The initial system was designed to serve as a community information resource in areas as diverse as law, medicine, education, arts, sciences, and government--includ- ing free electronic mail services for the people of northeast Ohio. On July 16, 1986, this system, called the Cleveland Free- Net was opened by Ohio Governor Richard Celeste and Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich and the project was officially underway. Version I of the Cleveland Free-Net gathered over 7000 regis- tered users from throughout the Cleveland metropolitan area and handled between 500-600 calls per day. In 1989, however, it moved into a second phase of development in a big way. A new system was designed around a series of computers which were linked together so that, from the user's standpoint, they would appear as one big machine. This new system, called Free-Net II, provided the Cleveland Free-Net with 96 megabytes of RAM (96 million characters of Random Access Memory), 2.3 gigabytes of hard disk storage (2.3 billion characters of hard disk), and would be easily capable of supporting several hundred simultaneous users. In August, 1989 the Cleveland super-system opened and very quickly was averaging well over 2000 logins a day... which later grew to 4000... then 8000, then 10,000 and is still growing with over 35,000 registered users having direct access to its services. From the very beginning one of the central tenets of the pro- ject was that, if it was successful, we would attempt to give the software and our methodology the widest possible dissemination. With that goal in mind, in September 1989, the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) was formed. NPTN is based around a concept similar to that of public TV or radio (see Appendix I). It's intent is to help develop further community computer systems, and to help support them once they come on-line. As mentioned, the first Free-Net went into operation in Cleveland in 1986. In July, 1987, the Youngstown Free-Net began operation. In the first four months of 1990 three more systems were brought into the network: TriState Online in Cincinnati, Ohio; The Heartland Free-Net in Peoria, Illinois; and the Medina County Free-Net in Medina, Ohio--our first rural system. Since then, we have grown to a network of 13 systems, with Organizing Committees in 29 more locations (see Appendix II, III, and IV). It is from these beginnings that NPTN continues to grow. THE CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY COMPUTING Free, open access, community computer systems represent, in effect, a new application in computing. They work like this. A multi-user computer is established at a central location in a given area and the machine is connected to the telephone system through a series of devices called modems. Running on the machine is a computer program that provides its users with everything from electronic mail services to information about health care, educa- tion, technology, government, recreation, or just about anything else the host operators would like to place on the machine. Anyone in the community with access to a home, office, or school computer and a modem can contact the system 24 hours a day. They simply dial a central phone number, make connection, and a series of menus appear on the screen which allows them to select the information or communication services they would like. All of it is free and all of it can easily be accomplished by a first- time user. The key to the economics of operating a community computer system is the fact that the system is literally run by the commu- nity itself. Almost everything that appears on one of these ma- chines is there because there are individuals or organizations in the community who are prepared to contribute their time, effort, and expertise to place it there and operate it over time. This, of course, is in contrast to the commercial services which have very high personnel and information-acquisition costs and must pass those costs on to the consumer. Couple this volunteerism with the rapidly-dropping costs of computing power and the use of inexpensive transmission technol- ogy, and public access computing becomes an economically-viable entity. A CIVIC UTILITY: POTENTIAL IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY Who, exactly, benefits from community computing? To cite just a few examples: * The Citizens: First and foremost, these community com- puter systems open up information services to very large popula- tions that would otherwise not be able to afford it. The cost of utilizing a Free-Net community computer consists of the cost of having standard telephone service in the home or business, plus the price of the equipment needed to get on-line. Minimum equip- ment is now well under $250 virtually anywhere, and that is assum- ing the person purchases new. If a person wishes to attend a few garage sales, flea markets, or computer fairs, it could be consid- erably less. With the addition of public access terminals in a city, anyone would be able to utilize one of these systems. * Public and Private Schools: Via community computers, school systems finally have a cost-effective way to teach telecom- puting to their students, thereby sending a new generation of in- formation-literate citizens into the work force. In addition, these systems allow students, teachers, parents, and administra- tors to communicate with each other and have access to information bases of interest and importance. * Government: Community computers provide citizens with an inexpensive and rapid way to make contact with their elected rep- resentatives at the city, county, state, and national levels--con- tacts which include everything from obtaining information on gov- ernmental services to providing access to tax-payer supported, governmentally-produced databases. It should also be pointed out that these communications are not one way. Elected representa- tives and other officials also have the ability to electronically communicate with their constituents. * Small- and Medium-sized Businesses: Most major corpora- tions have electronic mail and other computer-driven information services at their disposal. Most small- and medium-sized busi- nesses do not. With a Free-Net system in place, these smaller en- terprises are finally able to afford to link their operations to- gether via Free-Net electronic mail services and have access to a variety of useful business databases--something that cannot help but improve the business infrastructure of any city. * The Agricultural Community: Among the segments in our so- ciety that were the first to embrace computing were our farmers. The reason was obvious. Farmers are business people too, but they have the disadvantage of, in general, being dispersed over wide geographic areas. A Free-Net system in a central location in a county allows the agricultural community to access common informa- tion bases, share solutions to farm-related problems, access up- to-date crop and price information, and make electronic connection with the County Agent and each other--all without ever leaving home. * The Telecommunications and Videotex Industry: For years the commercial videotex industry has been dividing, sub-dividing, and sub-sub-dividing essentially the same "up-scale" demographic group: $60,000+ yearly household incomes, very well educated, overwhelmingly white, and overwhelmingly male. If the industry is to survive and flourish, however, it is going to have to find a way to penetrate the middle class with its services. Free-Net community computers do exactly that. On the Cleveland system, for example, we draw as many users from the demographically blue col- lar areas of the city as we do out of the wealthier sections. Demographic penetration such as this, on a nationwide basis, is vital if the telecomputing and videotex industry is to survive into the 21st century. * Community Organizations and Institutions: Each Free-Net is set up using an "Electronic City" motif. That motif was not se- lected by accident. To one degree or another, virtually every in- stitution in society has an information dissemination function of some kind--a need to tell others about itself and share its knowl- edge. The Free-Net makes it possible for any and all of them to utilize a new medium to accomplish that goal. From artistic and cultural organizations to medical institutions to hobbyists of all kinds, all can find a place on a community computer. THE GREENING OF A MEDIUM As a result of our experience in working with and developing these systems, we have learned several very important things. First, it is clear that these community computers represent the leading edge of what can only be described as a new telecommu- nications medium. Telecomputing is not radio, not television, not print, but has characteristics of all three plus additional char- acteristics all its own. This fact alone will inevitably lead to developments and uses that we cannot now even begin to imagine. Second, it is clear that a critical mass of people now exist who are prepared to utilize this new medium. As more and more mo- dem-equipped microcomputers penetrate the home and especially the work environment, the utility of public-access computerized infor- mation services goes up. And third, there is a certain sense of inevitability to the development of community computing. Simply stated, we find our- selves unable to imagine a 21st century in which we do NOT have community computer systems, just as this century had the free pub- lic library. Moreover, we believe that the community computer, as a resource, will have at least as much impact on the next century as the public library has had on ours. Most people do not realize that in the latter part of the last century there was no such thing as the free public library, at least not as we know it today. Eventually the literacy rate became high enough (and the cost of books became cheap enough) that the public library became feasible. People in cities and towns all across the country banded together to make free public access to the printed word a reality. The result was a legacy from which virtually every person reading this document has, at one point or another, benefited. In this century, we believe we have reached the point where computer "literacy" has gotten high enough (and the cost of equip- ment low enough) that a similar demand has formed for free, pub- lic-access, computerized information systems. Indeed, we believe we have reached a point where the question is no longer whether it will happen; the question is "who" and "when." Who will do it and when will it happen? The National Public Telecomputing Network exists to make free public access to computerized communications and information ser- vices a reality--to hand down a legacy to our children's children as great as the one handed to us. COVER LETTER: A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or per- haps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. - James Madison These words of James Madison, if anything, are of greater significance now then when they were first written. We, as a so- ciety, are at a point where whether we are going to live in an "Information Age" is no longer at issue. We are. The only ques- tion which remains is what we are going to do about it--whether we, as a society, will be able to use this new technology to more effectively "...arm ourselves with the power which knowledge gives." Free-Net (tm) community computer systems offer a significant and innovative answer to that question. They allow people un- paralleled access to some of the best services and resources our computerized Information Age has to offer; and they do it in a way which makes them free to the user--in much the same way that our public library system, for example, has been free to its patrons for over 100 years. This booklet is intended to provide you with an introduction to NPTN and our work. It is divided into six chapters. Chapter One outlines some of the background and general concepts which un- derly community computing; Chapter Two introduces Academy One--our K-12 educational program; Chapter Three provides more information on NPTN's Teledemocracy Program; Chapter Four discusses additional cybercasting and network information services; and Chapter Five tells how to begin the process of establishing a Free-Net system in your community. We hope this guide will answer many of your questions about our organization and will encourage you to take the next steps to- ward establishing a Free-Net of your own. For underlying it all--underlying all the time and effort that has gone into the development of the Free-Net concept--is one simple fact. We can not imagine a 21st Century which does NOT have free public-access community computer systems, just as our century had the free public library. If you agree with that belief; if you agree with us on the sheer inevitability of public access computing then, please, read on. This guide is for you. Thomas M. Grundner, Ed.D President