Nov. 15--NOTE: The following story, which moved on the Knight- Ridder/Tribune Business News service on Monday, Nov. 15, was incorrectly attributed by KRTBN to the Philadelphia Daily News. The story was written by Brad Patten of The Phoenix Gazette. The full text follows.
Nov. 15--Just as you travel to the library to get books, you will soon use your computer to tap into a vast network to retrieve information, query experts, chat with friends and connect to places around the world.
This isn't a high-tech vision with a big price. It's as low-tech as computing gets. And it's free. It will be available in Arizona in a few months as the state becomes one of two dozen sites with community computer networks, or freenets.
"What we have is something that is here right now, that's being done all over the country, with technology that already exists," said Dr.Tom Grundner,
president of the National Public Telecomputing Network, a nonprofit organization based in Cleveland, Ohio.
"Any school, any person who can get access to a personal computer with a modem and a phone line can be part of this."
The Arizona network is being organized under the auspices of Arizona State University with assistance from the Telecomputing Network. NPTN.
In testing now, AzTeC (a working title that stands for Arizona Telecommuting Community Computing) could be available to the public
ng to decide what this network will be," said Darel Eschbach, executive director for telecommunication services at ASU.
What form AzTeC will take is limited only by the imagination and energy of its supporters.
"The only information that will exist on the network will be what people decide to put on it," said Joe Askins, ASU's director of data communications installation and maintenance.
The community computer network is an unusual concept, not quite like other community institutions.
Think of it as a democratic, interactive, dynamic library with broadcast capabilities.
Grundner started the first one in Cleveland in 1984 while a health educator at Case Western Reserve University. The single-line system initially was designed as a place where citizens with modem-equipped computers could post medical questions and have them answered by doctors.
The effort was so successful it attracted additional support and expanded into Cleveland Free-Net, a general-interest community service connected to the Internet global network.
More than 10,000 people use Cleveland Free-Net each day. Last year, Grundner left Case Western to devote his full attention to the 4-year-old National Public Telecomputing Network.
With a $1.2million grant this year from Ameritech, a regional telephone company, the network NPTN hopes to become to computing what National Public Radio is to radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is to television.
Like the public broadcasting organizations, NPTN's emphasis is on education, particularly for children, and exposing people to diverse cultures.
Instead of network broadcasts, NPTN provides periodic "cybercasts" to its two-dozen affiliates.
The network recently "cybercast" a mock simulation of a space shuttle launch, with students at schools around the globe using their computers to play such roles as mission control or a satellite tracking station.
Each year, the network NPTN holds "Teleolympics." Students from as far apart away as New Zealand, Florida and Finland compete in sporting events. Their scores are entered into the computer network to see how they rate worldwide.
One of the possible projects for Arizona's freenet would be to develop an information center on Native American cultures.
"So that some kid in Youngstown, Ohio, or Buffalo, New York, could be learning about Indians," Grundner said.
Unlike radio and television, community computing networks are cheap. An active network like Cleveland's can be operated for $150,000 a year, with most of the money devoted to salaries of a few full-time employees, Grundner said.
Telecomputing Network's NPTN's annual membership fee is $1,200. Even that can be waived if the affiliate agrees to "cybercast" an educational program to affiliates, Grundner said.
Affiliation brings technical assistance, fund-raising help, and network services, such as the network's NPTN's Academy One program, a collection of more than 50 services, including electronic books and online writing programs.
But you won't find any snazzy graphics on these systems. Freenets emphasize content, not technology. All are designed to work with primitive computers, the kind you can buy for $100 at a garage sale.
Services vary widely by community. In Ottawa, Canada, for example, you can tap into news from Croatia. In Dillon, Mont., there's a host of resources for rural teachers. In Cleveland,
citizens can access position papers and press releases from candidates for public office.
Most freenets have the "electronic city" motif with a list of menu items. There's usually a "post office," to send and receive electronic mail. There's a "library," with online programs and an electronic card catalog. There's a "government center," listing services and reports from various agencies.
All have "special interest groups," areas where rose lovers can share secrets and Corvette owners can match motors.
Freenets are tied together through the Internet, the network of networks that allows users to travel the globe via computer.
By making a local call into AzTeC, an Arizonan will be able to access 16 other freenets from Tallahassee, Fla., to Victoria, British Columbia, via the Internet.
AzTeC has received support from several companies, including a donated computer from Digital Equipment Corp.
The service will be phased in, with local phone access first to the Valley, then Tucson and Flagstaff, followed by rural communities, Eschbach said.
AzTeC probably will offer Internet mail service to members, but that and other details need to be worked out,
What the organizers really are hoping for is a lot of community involvement.
"We all want to share information," Eschbach said. "Here's a great tool to help us do that."
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