Dec. 82JJan. 83 RAlN Page 4 RAINDRO ACCESS: Communication and Information At his first staff meeting, our newest intern Kris Nelson told us that he was waiting for the (proverbial) dust to settle in order to see how things "really" fit together at RAIN. His remark was met with polite guffaws; Kris was the third intern in a row to make that remark. Changes keep happening so fast around here that dust does seem to be raised. John Ferrell, a mainstay at RAIN for over two years has left to join the staffof the California Office of .Appropriate Technology. Laura Stuchinsky, another old time Rainiac is no longer a RAIN staff member but is working through RAIN in organizing a Northwest regional agriculture conference (see Northwest News Section). Bruce Borquist, too, has moved on, taking a job as a community developer in a small town just south of Portland. Meanwhile two new interns have joined the staff, Kris Nelson, who helped organize the Options Northwest Conference, and Penny Fearon, who originally came to RAIN as a staff aide to the Solar 82 conference. This RAIN Magazine was produced by a new staff team, with some old timers contributing. We were fortunate to have had John Ferrell leave behind probably one of the most well-documented transitions in the annals of nonprofit organizations. From the how-to manual he produced and memos left around like easter eggs, we were able to pull together a facsimile of the RAIN you all know. We did make some changes in RAIN, several of which have been in the making for months. The ORGANIZATION REVIEW is a place where we can focus attention on people working together: shining examples, unique perspectives on community and global problems, and groups offering information and assistance that readers might want to know about. The PERIODICAL REVIEW is a place for us to review noteworthy periodicals and emerging trends and patterns in the flows of printed communication. The RUSH section and CALENDAR section have been changed to incorporate our need to include last minute items (RUSH) and a place to describe timely events (CALENDAR). This issue was also a dramatic test for our computer system which we called upon for searching through information to find likely entries and then produced edited copy for typesetting. The software we used, MIST, developed by our good friends Peter and Trudy JohnsonLenz, performed admirably well. It took to RAIN like a duck takes to water. We are also using MIST to compile a comprehensive report on the RAIN Self-Reliance Project that was initiated in January of 1981. Did you know, for example, that we responded to over 2,000 information requests which included requests from 40 out of SO states and several foreign countries? Or that RAIN sponsored (and co-sponsored) events were attended by over 3,500 people? Current generation of Microcomputers The microcomputer market is likely to be dominated for some time to COIIII? by IBM's entry into the field. It has been projected that there mall be a million IBM microcomputers on the market within a year. The crop of microcomputers starting to come out this fall are faster, more in telligen t, and roomier thaI! the last generation of microcomputers. The new machines are commonly referred to as the 16 (and sometimes 32) bit machines. The tiny chip which dictates the number of electronic moves that can be made at any aile time is called the Central Processing Unit (CPU). Suddellly ill the l1ew machines there is more space to write more complex softwa re programs. The l1ew microcomputers also make use ofhard disk technology, a Im(l-cost magneticstorage medium that allaws ten to fifteell times thestorage area oftypical floppy diskette models. We are in a kind of "mealllvllik'" stage. TIle sofhoare market is aimed at 8-bit microcompu ters and it will take time for software to catch up with the increased capacity of 16-bit machines. So in the meanwhile some manufacturers are offering machines that can run both 8-bit and 16-bit CPUs. There is a good overview all the current generation of microcomputers in the September issue of High Technology ($2.()()J issue, 38 Commercial Wharf, Boston, MA021l0) . ORGANIZATIONS Knowledge Index Dialog Information Services, Inc. 3460 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 415/858-3785 Knowledge Index is Dialog's entry into the personal computer information utility market, competing with others such as The Source and Compuserve. Knowledge Index is an abridged collection of the databases that Dialog offers its regular customers with some new hicks to satisfy personal computer operators including a means to print out enhies found in the Dialog databases - providing your computer is equipped with telecommunications software and a device for translating from analog to digital communication (a phone modem). The basic fees are time online, $24Jhour, which includes long distance telephone line charges, and a $35 one time fee for a manual. Articles, reports, etc. which are located by users on a database can also be photocopied and sent to the user ($4.50 plus $.20 per page). Contents include computers, engineering, agriculture, medicine, daily news, education and psychology.
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