tory of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts. Institute of Technology, 7~ Massachusetts A venue,..-Ca~bridge, MA' 02139; 617/~53-1350. ' Technology Information Exchange Services (TIES)- Minneapolis TIES is a national research and publishing organization established to facilitate the exchange of information on the nonprofit and public service applications of emerging communications and information technologies. Founded in 1983, it is an outgrowth of Cohnaim Associates, Inc., a planning research anq marketing consulting firm headquartered in Minneapolis and serving nonprofit, public, and commercial organizations since 1972. TIES monitors the latest developments in public, community-based, and organizational applications for technologies ranging from microcomputers, to cable television and video, to videotex and teleconferencing, to electronic mail and interactive information networks. Immediate plans include the publication of a bimonthly'newsletter on nonprofit technology, the TIES Bulletin, geared to the information needs of managers. TIES future developments will include conducting research studies, issuing special reports analyzing topics of current interest, custom-designing training materials for specific client activities, and conducting conferences and training seminars to facilitate learning, interdisciplinary sharing, and n'etworking pinong nonprofit organization~. For more information, contact Technology Information Exchange Services, PO Box 10Z68, Minneapolis·, MN 55440; 612/ 374-94515. Turn On, Tune In, and Program Your Bio-Chips As you deftly use your word processing software to crank out the 19th variation on a proposal, your mind is responding to subliminal messages being flashed across the screen. Today you are working on cutting back on coffee drinking, yesterday it was chocolate. One software · package, from Greentree Publishers, s,ums up a new trend in software pro-· gramming, "Subliminal Suggestion and Self-Hypnosis for Your Computer." For. only $68.95, the program allows you to blink any short message thousands of times a day. Ronald Levy, a practicing child psychiatrist in Williamsville, NY, sells a package called Cope, which he claims can plunge the user into hypnotic trances where they can treat their own psychological ailments. Messages flash across the screen like, "Your unconscious mind is here and close enough to hear me~ You unconscious mind will listen to me withoutyour knowledge...." Dr, Levy also has worked.with a baptist minister to write a program that would allow users to experience the happiness and innocence of childhood by embracing Christianity. Meanwhile, Tim Leary ("turn on, tune in ...") has formed a company called Futique Inc. to develop psychotherapy software. One program called Skipi (Super Knowledge Information Processing Intelligence) would continually measure a user's personality by analyzing the'way he ordinarily operates a computer and the responses to series of programs. Dr. Leary says, "the personal computer will become as much a part of your brain as oxygen." Permanent Pre-Hostility :Yhe National Council of Teachers of English have awarded their 1984 Doubl~ speak Award. The winner is the U.S. State Department for its euphemism for killing, the "unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of life." Other nominees include "a controlled flight into terrain" for an airplane crash (National Ti:ansportation Safety Board), "permanent pre-hostility" for peace (the Pentagon), "a pre-dawn vertical insertion" for the invasion of Grenada (U.S. State Department),·and "collateral damage" for civilian casualities in nuclear war (the Pentagon)._ Pl'ivate Agencies Collaborating Together (PACT) · PACTis an international consortium·of private nonprofit agencies working in developing countries to improve the conditions of people's lives who have limited access to resources. PACT works with its membership and other private .voluntary organizations_in such areas as information exchange, personnel management, financial management, and fundraising. PACT's Project Fund has awarded over $13 million over the past 10 years to 121 projects. Forty-six percent of these grants were awarded to projects in Latin America, with Africa and Asia each receiving about 27percent of the grants. The majority of the grants are focused on projects that call for direct collaboration among two or more private agencies. The Supportive Activities Fund sponsors projects mostly for the planning and design of new field-level projects in developing countries and for participation by development agency staff in seminars, workshops, and conferences. The Consortia Grants Program focuses assistance on projects that strengthen March/April 1985 RAIN Page 29 consortia of private agencies in Third World countries. Recently, PACT reached an agreement with Apple's Community Affairs to distribute Apple computers to private nonprofit voluntary organizations working·in developing countries. This partnerhsip with Apple presents challenging problems for both organizations. For example, the computers have to go through State Department red tape as well as additional red tape in the destination countries. And red tape isn't the only problem. The computers may end up in places where modern electrical and telecommunications technology are \ several years or miles away. Enrique fernandez, who works with Solidarios, a consortia of 20 national development foundations throughout Latin America and the Carribean, told of some of the unique problems of computing in developing countries at a recent training sponsored by Apple. Take for example what can happen when you are matterof-factly telecommunicating with the rest of the world with your personal computer, and the local electric company uses a tried-and-true method of drying the lines-sending an extra surge of power over the lines. More than one computerist have had their byte.s bite the dust. An On-line Locker Room As the telephone has had tremendous impact on our social relationships, so might newer forms of telecommunications, such as electronic mail and computer conferencing systems. Studies at Carnegie-Mellon University have shed some new light on the subject. Dr. Sara Kiesler, curious about reports of how electronic computer communications changes people's work style and interpersonal behavior, decided to study the systems in both experimental situations and real corporate settings. In one experiment two groups had the same decision to grapple with. One group made the decision in a face to face situation, while
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