Page 6 RAIN July 1982 Qearly, community organizations can profit in many ways from using the new forms of electronic technology. networks including neighborhoods, communities, organizations and associations. This network is beginning to carry out the "Third Wave” into the communications era and out of the waning industrial era patterns of centralization, control of nature and exploitation of lesser developed cultures. By its very nature, this network of networks offers a locally owned and controlled, democratic alternative to centralized government and allocation of limited resources. Simultaneously, the advent of relatively low-cost micro-computers is making possible communications and information exchange networks which are themselves physically decentralized and locally owned and controlled. Such technology provides the nervous system of the emerging social change networks. □□ EIES New Jersey Institute of Technology 323 High Street Newark, New Jersey 07102 EIES (the Electronic Information Exchange System) is one of the more fascinating electronic communication experiments around. Over the past six years, hundreds of people have come and gone using the system for sociological experiments, as a tool for developing networks of like-minded individuals, as an interactive database, a participatory trip through the future of agriculture, an environment to offer related electronic age services, and an inquiry/exchange network among state legislators. EIES was developed to be used by computer illiterates and so is very user-friendly with pages and pages of on-line explanations of choices which can be easily retrieved with a simple question mark at any point where the user feels lost. One of the more dynamic asp>ects of EIES is the use of INTERACT, a “string-processing-oriented-language" which allows users to do some programming (in what is basically abbreviated English) to f>erform tasks to meet their specific needs. On EIES, communication takes place between individuals who type messages at their computer or computer terminal and send them to the EIES computer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology; the messages are delivered to the recipient's "mailbox" where it is available when he/she next logs-on to the system. Communication also takes place in a conference-format where individuals type in messages that are gathered in one place for all members of a particular conference to review at their convenience. Conferences can be used to hold on-line meetings, with aU participants on at the same time, or discussions about some topic(s) that may last for weeks or even years. Conferences are also used by some as a means to maintain regular communicaHon with certain other persons, e.g. branch offices. All the messages are kept (with occasional purges) and indexed so that participants may call forth old comments, or print-out the transcript of a "meeting." Text-editing and document formating commands are available so that text from a meeting, or other information stored in one's "notebook" can be nicely printed up. Extensive study has been done about the impact on communication patterns of people who use EIES. The Network Nation by Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz (Addison- Wesley, 1978) is filled wdth insights about computer-mediated communication environments and speculations about what roles such systems might play in the future. Access _ i.:)i ORGANIZATIONS USING COMPUTERS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS Alternative Media Center New York University 725 Broadway New York, NY 10003 The Center has designed and assisted in the development of community services using interactive cable-TV and other information and communication technologies, including a Nursing Home Telemedicine Project, interactive citizen participation system in Burkes County, Pennsylvania, and an education network at University of Wisconsin. More recently they have been involved in a demonstration of a broadcast videotex system through the Public Broadcasting System at its Washington, D.C. affiliate. Berkeley Solar Croup Computer Services 3140 Grove St. Berkeley, CA 94703 415-843-7600 Provides computing services for architects. The group offers its services directory to the local conununity and via telephone and computer or computer terminal from other locations using Telenet and Tymenet. Programs and databases include: FCHARTS and FCHART4 for analysis of active solar energy housing installations and CALPA3 for passive systems, as well as WEATHER, a database on climate features in 250 locations in the U.S. Communitree Group 470 Castro St., Suite 207-3002 San Francisco, CA 94114 415-474-0933 (voice) 415-928-0641 (modem/computer) Communitree is a teleconferencing system for Apple computer users, available in several locations around the country via telephone connections. Conferences are established about different topics, such as health, micro-computers and sharing software, while others are open ended.
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