########## ########## ########## | PIONEER AWARDS 2.0 ########## ########## ########## | Call for Nominations #### #### #### | ######## ######## ######## | EFF/AUSTIN: The First Chapter ######## ######## ######## | #### #### #### | THE SETTLING OF THE INTERNET ########## #### #### | ########## #### #### | FTP.EFF.ORG:The Users' Site ===================================================================== EFFector Online October 22, 1992 Issue 3.07 A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 ===================================================================== THE SECOND ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EFF PIONEER AWARDS: CALL FOR NOMINATIONS Deadline: December 31,1992 In every field of human endeavor,there are those dedicated to expanding knowledge,freedom,efficiency and utility. Along the electronic frontier, this is especially true. To recognize this,the Electronic Frontier Foundation has established the Pioneer Awards for deserving individuals and organizations. The Pioneer Awards are international and nominations are open to all. In March of 1992, the first EFF Pioneer Awards were given in Washington D.C. The winners were: Douglas C. Engelbart of Fremont, California; Robert Kahn of Reston, Virginia; Jim Warren of Woodside, California; Tom Jennings of San Francisco, California; and Andrzej Smereczynski of Warsaw, Poland. The Second Annual Pioneer Awards will be given in San Francisco, California at the 3rd Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy in March of 1993. All valid nominations will be reviewed by a panel of impartial judges chosen for their knowledge of computer-based communications and the technical, legal, and social issues involved in networking. There are no specific categories for the Pioneer Awards, but the following guidelines apply: 1) The nominees must have made a substantial contribution to the health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based communications. 2) The contribution may be technical, social, economic or cultural. 3) Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in the private or public sectors. 4) Nominations are open to all, and you may nominate more than one recipient. You may nominate yourself or your organization. 5) All nominations, to be valid, must contain your reasons, however brief, on why you are nominating the individual or organization, along with a means of contacting the nominee, and your own contact number. No anonymous nominations will be allowed. 6) Every person or organization, with the single exception of EFF staff members, are eligible for Pioneer Awards. 7) Persons or representatives of organizations receiving a Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the ceremony at the Foundation's expense. You may nominate as many as you wish, but please use one form per nomination. You may return the forms to us via email to pioneer@eff.org You may mail them to us at: Pioneer Awards, EFF, 155 Second Street Cambridge MA 02141. You may FAX them to us at: +1 617 864 0866 Just tell us the name of the nominee, the phone number or email address at which the nominee can be reached, and, most important, why you feel the nominee deserves the award. You may attach supporting documentation. Please include your own name, address, and phone number. We're looking for the Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier that have made and are making a difference. Thanks for helping us find them, The Electronic Frontier Foundation -------EFF Pioneer Awards Nomination Form------ Please return to the Electronic Frontier Foundation via email to: pioneer@eff.org via surface mail to EFF 155 Second Street, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA; via FAX to +1 617 864 0866 Nominee: Title: Company/Organization: Contact number or email address: Reason for nomination: Your name and contact information: Extra documentation attached: DEADLINE: ALL NOMINATIONS MUST BE RECEIVE BY THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION BY MIDNIGHT, EASTERN STANDARD TIME U.S., DECEMBER 31,1992. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- THE EFF/AUSTIN CHAPTER A Progress Report by John S. Quarterman President of Autsin EFF. As of July 1992, the official name of our group is EFF-Austin, and we are a Texas nonprofit corporation. Our goals, adapted from those of EFF-National, are given in our Articles of Incorporation: (a) to engage in and support educational activities that increase understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed by computing and telecommunications, and related civil liberties issues. (b) to foster a clearer social understanding of the issues underlying free and open telecommunications; and (c) to facilitate and encourage communication between individuals interested in computer and telecommunication technology and related social and legal issues. Among other activities in pursuit of these goals, we hold three distinct types of public meetings: member meetings; Public Forums; and Cyberdawgs. Member meetings consist of presentations by EFF-Austin directors and others on what EFF-Austin is doing, and questions and suggestions from the attendees. Our first general public meeting was held in May, at the Austin Technology Incubator. Close to sixty people attended to listen to what we had to say and to offer ideas. We are planning another member meeting for November. Public Forums have specific agendas and speakers, and both present information of interest to our members and the public, and invite discussion. Our most recent public forum was "The Net: What is It, Where is it, Who Uses It, and for What?", presented by John Quarterman and Smoot Carl-Mitchell of Texas Internet Consulting and Matrix Information and Directory Services, and Anna Couey, an art networker from San Francisco. This was held at MCC and included online demonstrations of Internet applications such as anonymous FTP, archie, and gopher, as well as TELNET to locations such as Moscow and the WELL. The next scheduled Public Forum is on October 29. Noted science fiction author Bruce Sterling will speak and sign copies concerning his latest work, the nonfiction book, The Hacker Crackdown, just published by Bantam. This meeting will be held at the University of Texas. We are inviting local law enforcement officers to attend, considering the subject matter of the book. Cliff Figallo, Director of the Cambridge Office of the Electronic Frontier Foundation will also attend. Ed Cavazos is currently organizing a panel discussion on Sysop Liability that will be given in January of next year. In contrast to the formal presentation of a Public Forum is a "Cyberdawg". These are informal networking mixers. (The name comes from a hot dog picnic held last year at the Steve Jackson Games office in Austin.) We have held two Cyberdawgs so far , in June and August, at the High Times Tea Bar and Brain Gym (a local establishment that serves intellectual games instead of alcohol), and at Europa Books. They were well-attended by a diverse mix of the Austin electronic community. All types of computer users met to talk, exchange information, make contacts, and simply have fun. We have scheduled the next Cyberdawg for November, and plan to have Tracy LaQuey Parker present to sign copies of her latest book, The Internet Companion, just published by Addison-Wesley. Another method of information distribution that we have employed is staffing tables at conventions. For example, we held a table at the Government and Technology Convention in February of 1992, and have plans to be present at the 1993 show as well. We had a meeting at the Armadillocon Science Fiction Convention 9-11 October. Since several of our members are frequent travelers to SF conventions, we have presented panels and distributed literature at many such events. We consider this worthwhile, since science fiction readers are likely to be interested in the way society evolves to handle evolving technology. At all of these events we have been passing out EFF literature that we possess at the time. We have created information of our own, as well. There is the Info Disk, which contains text files that serve as a primer to relevant issues in the use of computers and networks. September saw the first issue of our online newsletter, Word, which we plan to distribute monthly. EFF-Austin also sponsors a moderated newsgroup, austin.eff, linked bidirectionally with a mailing list, eff-austin@tic.com. That newsgroup and mailing list are about EFF-Austin and local concerns, but they are already widely distributed outside of Austin and on BBSes as well as through USENET, UUCP, and the Internet. This is all in addition to the meetings of the Board of Directors (fifteen in the last twelve months). We currently hold these meetings on the second Tuesday of each month. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- CURRENT SITE @eff.org Where Users Come First. by Rita Rouvalis (rita@eff.org) Carefully assemble four Sparcstation II's, nine gigs of disk storage, a T1 and what do you get? One hopping Internet site and the Heart and Soul of the EFF. Traditionally, netiquette has required that most ftp transfers be done druing non-business or off-peak hours. The reason for the request is that most ftp machines are also used for other tasks by the local users. ftp.eff.org, however, is a dedicated ftp, gopher, and WAIS machine. This means that it is not at the staff's disposal, but yours. So pound away on it at any time of the day or night. That's the reason we built it. Services like WAIS, and GOPHER underscore our enthusiasm for better, easier-to-use technology for accessing the information stored on the Net. The wide variety of subject matter found in our anonymous FTP archives is a working testimony to our belief in the free and open flow of all kinds of information, not simply the official EFF positions and publications (these are found only in the EFF directory). And not only is our hardware the key distribution point for official EFF documents like EFFector Online and NewsNotes, but we're also the virtual home for other, similar-minded organizations like Carl Kadie's Computers and Academic Freedom, the Index on Censorship, the Boston Computer Society, the Massachusetts branch of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), Beyond Dreams, and the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX). Last month, an average of 1371 files *a day* were sucked down from our archives. Some of your favorites, according to our statistics, are File Downloads in September /pub/cud/phrack/phrack-40 454 /pub/EFF/legal-issues/eff-fbi-analysis 230 /pub/EFF/about-eff 197 /pub/cud/cud/cud4.41 173 /pub/internet-info/ftp.sites 101 /pub/journals/CORE/core1.08 53 /etc/passwd 39 /pub/EFF/legal-issues/against-look-and-feel 39 /pub/EFF/papers/crime-and-puzzlement 33 /pub/journals/InterText/ITv2n4-ascii 29 One of the best-kept secrets on ftp.eff.org is the relatively quiet little corner occupied by the /journals directory. One of the most selective news stands in Cyberspace, it contains a small number of excellent and widely varied electronic publications. Our two newest additions to the magazine rack are CurrentCites, which presents selected articles on information transfer, electronic publishing, expert systems and artificial intelligence, and more; and ScreamBaby, a tense, neurotic 'zine that asks the all-consuming question "What the hell did *YOU* do today?" Other recent additions include a document on electronic communications from Human Right Watch (/pub/EFF/papers/electrifying-speech); the first edition of Word, the EFF-Austin chapter's newsletter (/pub/EFF/local- chapters/Austin_TX/Word1); and the EJournal Directory, an extensive list of electronic publications (/pub/journals/EJournal.Directory2.1). We are always looking for new files of interest to add to our ftp collection. If you know of anything appropriate, please drop us a note at eff@eff.org. -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- From the Univ of Wisconsin Microelectronics bulletin, Prof. F Cerrina as the author: "After the Microlithography '92 conference in Japan, we toured some of the leading electronics laboratories. Our visit to Hitachi's Central Research Lab included an amusing demonstration of the resolution of current lithography. On a four-inch wafer, they printed a map of the world that included the streets of London down to the smallest alleys. It's now possible to put a fully detailed map of the world on a six-inch wafer." Food for thought... (Submitted by Gary Delp ) -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- The Settling of the Internet by David Tyckson (DT673@ALBNYVMS.BITNET ) It has been nearly three months since I sent my original "What's Going On Here?" message to PACS-L, which dealt with the migration from electronic to print format of some of my favorite network publications. While I expected some responses to this message, I did not expect the flood of material that came to me both privately and over the network. I am finally clearing my mailbox of old messages and would like to report to PACS-L on this topic. The vast majority of responses disagreed with me and indicated that print is an appropriate, if not preferred, publication medium. Many replies stressed the rights of authors to receive royalty payments for print publications, the fact that print gets wider distribution than electronic media, and that the author has every right to select the publication format. One particularly thoughtful response (sent on PACS-L by Czeslaw Jan Grycz) discussed the role of electronic publication in the scholarly communications process. Other responses moved into a variety of related topics, including copyright, the cost of the network, and even the global environment. It is clear that my original message struck a nerve among many network users. Some responses were predictable (the editors of PACS Review were not pleased with my attack on the print version of their publication), some were enlightening (Brendan Kehoe gave an excellent review of the evolution of Zen and the Art of the Internet), and some were surprising (I did not realize that Zen had been written by an undergraduate student). Perhaps the most surprising response of all was finding myself quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a fact which I became aware of only when the Office of the President of my university called to find out more about my "article" in the Chronicle! After all of this discussion and publicity, what exactly is going on here? The Internet is not dying, as my initial message may have led some to believe, but is alive and very, very well. In fact, network resources comprise the biggest growth area in the information world at the moment. All of the training sessions, publications, and new network position advertisements clearly show that the Internet will be around for a long time to come. It is not death that we must worry about, but rapid growth. Because of this growth, something DID happen to the Internet last summer. The issues that I raised originally were not indicators of the end of the network, but were signs of its maturation. Whereas in the past the networks were the playthings (and workthings) of a few network elite, they have grown to encompass a much broader clientele. It is this volume of users that has resulted in the changes. Last summer, the number of network users passed the critical mass required to attract interest from commercial publishers and the press. While this attention will help the Internet to grow even further, it takes something away from the communal aspects of the early users. Like the telephone user who was required to move from a party line to a private line when he/she realized who else could be monitoring the calls, the presence of journalistic and commercial entities on the networks may change the nature of the information communicated over these networks. Information that has been given away freely in the past may now require some type of payment to a publisher. While the creators of information deserve credit (both intellectual and monetary) for their work, the formalization of this process will tend to discourage "skywriting" as we have known it in the past. In addition, authors who may formerly have spontaneously responded to other messages may now be cautious in what they say and how they say it. The numerous disclaimer statements at the end of author signatures are already a step in this direction. Last summer saw the passing of an era in networked resources. Before the summer, the network was populated primarily by pioneers, who explored its resources out of enthusiasm, interest, and a sense of exploration. Now it is being populated by settlers, who wish to mine the networks in some sort of production mode. The early users (pioneers) were able to explore and search in a somewhat unrestricted manner, creating their own rules as they went along. Some did it for the challenge, some in search of specific types of resources, and others just for the fun of seeing what was out there. The success of those pioneer efforts brought many more users onto the networks. However, these new users did not usually have the same motives for utilizing networked resources. Rather than exploring the network wilderness, the new users (settlers) want resources that they can use in their everyday lives. They also want guides to these resources and rules for their use. The commercial and journalistic presence in issues related to the network is a clear indication that we have evolved into the settler stage. Unfortunately, the cultures of pioneers and settlers do not always conform. Pioneers want freedom, while settlers want order. While some pioneers stake out an area and become leading settlers in an aspect of networked resources, others move on and continue to explore new areas. The pioneers laid the groundwork for the rest of us (I consider myself a very early settler) and we owe them our gratitude for making us aware of the capabilities of networked information. While we may lament the passing of the good old days of freewheeling information flow, we have moved on into an era in which more networked information will be available to more people than ever. Last summer saw the passing of the era of the wild, wild Internet. It is now up to those of us who have settled these new territories to develop rules, regulations, and guidebooks that will make information available equitably for everyone. I have faith that we, as information organizers, will be able to develop a culture that preserves democratic access to information resources. If not, we will have settled a land not worth inhabiting. David Tyckoson Head, Reference Department University Libraries University at Albany - SUNY (518) 442-3559 DT673@ALBNYVMS -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- FROM THE MBOX From: "Thomas Leedy, Admin A-402, Ext 2410" To: Electronic Frontier Foundation Subject: Where Can I Get One of Those Bumper Stickers? Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 09:46:31 EDT I saw a *great* bumper sticker on the Washington DC Beltway this morning and almost ran the poor guy off the road trying to read the Internet address ...so I hope that I have this right. It said "I'd rather be telecommuting. " Do you people make these available? If so how can I get one? (The only other way I know is to steal the fellow's bumper!) Would be interested in other material/positions that the Electronic Frontier Foundation makes available. Thanks! Best ... Tom leedy@micf.nist.gov [Editors note: Card-carrying members of the EFF can get one bumper sticker for free. Non-members can buy them for $2 each, pre-paid. Please include a self-addressed stamped business-sized envelope and specify whether you want: "I'd rather be telecommuting." "CYBERNAUT" "Highways in Cyberspace: 'Make it so.'" "My other car is a computer." Gifs of these can be viewed by ftp'ing to ftp.eff.org and cd'ing to /pub/EFF/eff-issues thanks to the generous volunteer work of Mark Sheenan (sheehan@indiana.edu).] -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- MEMBERSHIP IN THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION If you support our goals and our work, you can show that support by becoming a member now. Members receive our bi-weekly electronic newsletter, EFFector Online, the @eff.org newsletter and special releases and other notices on our activities. But because we believe that support should be freely given, you can receive these things even if you do not elect to become a member. Our memberships are $20.00 per year for students, $40.00 per year for regular members. You may, of course, donate more if you wish. Our privacy policy: The Electronic Frontier Foundation will never, under any circumstances, sell any part of its membership list. We will, from time to time, share this list with other non-profit organizations whose work we determine to be in line with our goals. If you do not grant explicit permission, we assume that you do not wish your membership disclosed to any group for any reason. ---------------- EFF MEMBERSHIP FORM --------------- Mail to: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc. 155 Second St. #37 Cambridge, MA 02141 I wish to become a member of the EFF I enclose:$__________ $20.00 (student or low income membership) $40.00 (regular membership) $100.00(Corporate or company membership. This allows any organization to become a member of EFF. It allows such an organization, if it wishes to designate up to five individuals within the organization as members.) I enclose an additional donation of $ Name: Organization: Address: City or Town: State: Zip: Phone:( ) (optional) FAX:( ) (optional) Email address: I enclose a check [ ] . Please charge my membership in the amount of $ to my Mastercard [ ] Visa [ ] American Express [ ] Number: Expiration date: Signature: Date: I hereby grant permission to the EFF to share my name with other non-profit groups from time to time as it deems appropriate [ ] . Initials: Your membership/donation is fully tax deductible. ===================================================================== EFFector Online is published by The Electronic Frontier Foundation 155 Second Street, Cambridge MA 02141 Phone: +1 617 864 0665 FAX: +1 617 864 0866 Internet Address: eff@eff.org Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is encouraged. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the view of the EFF. To reproduce signed articles individually, please contact the authors for their express permission. ===================================================================== This newsletter is printed on 100% recycled electrons.