We here at Wimsey are settling in for a productive Fall as well. Our First Thursday evening drop in session was a great success. The second, September 8th from 5:30PM to 7:00PM looks like it will be too, judging by the E-mail from prospective attendees.
In addition to the drop-in sessions, we will be hosting a series of seminars for people who are interested in the Internet and what it has to offer. The first is tentatively slated for October 5th. Details will be announced shortly. The series I have been doing for the Port Moody library will also continue, with two more this month. I am also speaking at several dinner and lunch meetings for various groups over the next few months.
I do these seminars and talks for several reasons, not just to attract new customers (although that is a very good reason), but also to try to counteract the effects on the Internet of adding such large numbers of new people - I call it Fire Prevention.
As many of you may know, the Internet has grown because people and organizations made the concious decisions that being connected together was better for both parties to each connection than not being connected. A researcher would phone and talk to a system administrator and the two would decide that having the researcher's department connected to the sys admin's major computer centre would be "a good thing"; and the connection would be made - many times with both sharing the actual cost of the link. This cooperation was responsible for links of many sizes. We maintain links to several of the other local Internet providers outside our main link simply because there is so much traffic between our sites that it is in both our interests to have the link - and we share the cost. These links also provide a measure of redundancy - again for both of us. The same thing happens all over the Internet world. But over the past year or two a disturbing trend has started. The tremendous influx of new, non-computer networking people who are asking and demanding access to the Internet have no sense of the cooperative history it has. They simply see it as either a toy, to play with and play games on and possibly to break when they feel like it; or they see it as simply a different form of government provided transportation infrastructure, to be driven over and loaded with whatever they see fit with no regard to other's needs or costs - "let the government build it bigger if its too slow and choked."
The fact that people bring this attitude to the Internet may be a comment on our society, but it really doesn't matter how they came by it. The problem is that in the past the time it took for a new person to learn the technical ins and outs of the 'Net enough to be able to interact with it in any great amount ususally also was long enough that they got a good dose of the culture and cooperation that was there too. Sys Admins got to know the new people well enough to be able to guide them and cooerce them into the 'Net mindset - I know, this is how I became a 'Net person.
Now however, not only we, but every other 'Net provider is adding new customers as fast as they can type in the passwords. Little time is spent getting to know them, and even less is spent in orienting them. The task is left to the individual, and the tools they have with which to interact with the rest of the 'Net are now so sophisticated and simple to use that there are realy no barriers to these 'newbies' simply firing up the News program and sending a "Hi, I'm here" message to all 5000+ newsgroups.
I started out spending about a half hour with each of our new customers on the phone suggesting reading and news groups to browse, and councelling to "read for a month before posting", and such. As we got busier, the half hour devolved into a few minutes, and now it doesn't exist at all beyond telling them enough to get them started on our system - phone number and "everything is lower case." Instead, I have decided to speak to larger groups at once. The message is pretty much the same, but the pace is quite different. With a larger group I don't ususally have to rush so I can get to the next one like I do with phone calls.
I find it amazing how many people are responsive to the concepts of cooperation and of "give as good as you receive" when I speak to them. They simply needed to be made aware that here was something that didn't conform to the typical selfish and paternalistic pattern our society seems to have grown into. That they can not only go out and get information, but can also give and participate in the creation of information is staggering to some, and a joy to others.
Maybe there is hope for the Internet yet.
Richard Pitt (richard@wimsey.com)
admin@wimsey.com