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Voices Issue 1.2
From swilbur@andy.bgsu.edu Mon Sep 6 01:10:01 1993
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 20:12:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: bookish <swilbur@andy.bgsu.edu>
Reply to: Voices-request@andy.bgsu.edu
To: voices@andy.bgsu.edu
Subject: VoicesFromTheNet1.2
**************************
Can * VOICES FROM THE NET *
you * VOICES FROM THE NET * ---
hear * *
our * 1.2 * Do
voices * NEW VOICES * you
? * "The Origins Issue" * read
* * us
--- * VOICES FROM THE NET * ?
* VOICES FROM THE NET *
**************************
There are a lot of folks with at least one foot in this complex region we
call (much too simply) "the net." There are a lot of voices on these wires.
- all kinds of voices - loud and quiet, anonymous and well-known. And yet,
it's far from clear what it might mean to be a "voice" from, or on, the
net. Enter "Voices from the Net": one attempt to sample, explore, the
possibilities (or perils) of net.voices. Worrying away at the question.
Running down the meme. Looking/listening, and reporting back to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS MAGAZINE WAS CREATED ON A VAX 8650 AND A MACINTOSH NO LONGER PRODUCED
BY THE APPLE CORPORATION, USING MORE-OR-LESS WHATEVER SOFTWARE WAS AT-HAND.
(obligatory DIY tech note)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
_1.2_
====
THIS ISSUE:
--VOICES CARRY
--FEATURE: Margie Ingall
--SIGNAL/NOISE
Ivan the "Newbie"
Net-Bio: Indigo
--FEATURE: Adam Curry
--A SHOuT IN THE DARK
--PREVIEWS
--INFO/ARCHIVES/ACCEPTABLE USE
====
(New) VOICES CARRY: "In which the truth comes out..."
Newbies. That's our focus for this issue. What is it like to first
encounter the net in all its daunting splendor, its richness, its
rudeness? It's a question to which we all have our own answers. There's no
escaping it. We all get to be newbies for a while, until we learn the
ropes. Until we find our place(s) and voice(s). And we may get to relive
the experience, if we move to some new virtual environment, take on some
new online task or challenge.
Because it's not exactly a matter of "How long have *you* been on the
net?" If it were, then perhaps you wouldn't be reading this, since, to be
excruciatingly honest, none of us at "Voices" have been online all *that*
long. Only a little longer than some of the new users that we interviewed,
in fact. And yet, here we are, and it looks like we'll be around for a
while. Thanks to all of you, new and experienced users, who have made us
welcome in your hearts and mailboxes...
But if our new(bie)ness is not just a matter of duration, of logging
net.hours, then what is it? Perhaps there's no one factor that's decisive,
but let's explore a few:
Maybe it's a matter of welcome, of the first interactions. Every "Sure!
I'd love to talk to you" has drawn me deeper into the net, as has every
"Oh, did you know you can <insert your fave trick here>?" But it can also
work in a negative sense. You learn quickly which corners of cyberspace to
avoid. Or perhaps the lack of welcome is a challenge... A little adversity
only sweetens the moment when you can say, "Hey, I've carved out a space
here!" For this issue, we've talked to some folks who have been greeted
with less-than-completely-open arms by various online communities. And
here they still are...
So perhaps it's a matter of immersion. Time is a funny thing out here, and
a lot can happen in almost no time at all. Say the wrong thing on a
newsgroup or e-list and see if you don't become suddenly experienced. Much
is made of the distinction between lurkers and posters, as if action was
privileged here, as it is so often in "real life." You're a newbie until
you take the posting plunge...
Or maybe there isn't really a magic moment where you master the system,
and suddenly you're a *REAL* user. Sure, you master your mailer, and then
go on to grapple with the newsreader of your choice until you're a regular
Usenet god(dess). But there's always another environment waiting, with
something that's a little beyond, or a lot beyond, your previous
experience. Can your MUD, MOO, IRC? Have you compiled a client? Ftp-ed the
manual? uudecoded? unzipped? gunzipped? telnetted? Used WAIS, WWW,
Archie, Veronica, Jughead, Gopher? Do you program? In what languages?
Cool, but have you heard about...
Maybe there's just a moment where the newness wears off of our (almost
perpetual) newness. Not that we lose interest, or even our sense of
wonder, but we begin to feel more comfortable with the challenges and
changes that are here if we bother to look at all. We don't master the
net, but we learn that we don't have to to use it, enjoy it...
Or maybe I just haven't been around long enough to fathom the mysteries of
the net. But I feel at home. I really do. And it's a good feeling, knowing
that there are friends no more than a telnet or an e-mail message away.
Knowing that this is getting through... all over the world. Voices carry.
listen...
bookish
==============
FEATURE: _Marjorie Ingall: Sassy Magazine_
In May of this year Sassy magazine printed an article called "Girlz in
Cyberspace." The article sparked a (cyber?) storm of criticisms, flaming
and all-around nastiness. It seemed to bring out the worst of all "voices."
In fact, it seemed to be the subject du jour on the net for almost a month.
Just about everyone jumped on the bandwagon--some pro, but many con.
alt.cyberpunk had their usual bashfest concerning the article, but this
time it seemed even more intense than usual. Why all the criticisms? A
girl's magazine coming to a boy's playground? In any case, we got in touch
with the author of the article, Marjorie Ingall, the senior writer for Sassy.
We thought we would give her a chance to respond to the experience and
give her take on being a new Voice From The Net...
>first a short auto-bio:
i've been at sassy almost three years. now i'm senior writer. the
online community should not dismiss me or sassy as bimboid, merely because
the mag is aimed at teenagegirls. why, that would be like saying all men
online are pocket-protector wearing dorks! my goodness, quel stereotype.
sassy's a smart and funny magazine. i too am smart and funny. i graduated
from harvard in 89. i double majored in folklore and mythology and english.
besides sassy i've written for mccalls fodors and lets go (travel guides)
and a couple other places. and this year i won two journalism awards--one
for a story on schizophrenia from the american psychiatric association and
one for a series on prolife and prochoice teenage activists from the national
women's political caucus. yeeha.
>ready, steady, go...
okay, lessee. i'll just free-associate here. i've found i use a very diff
voice online than either conversationally or in my sassy writing. no caps
for one thing, much more free-associative. it seems to allow certain
people to feed into their stereotypes of sassy as a breathless teenybopper
thing, without catching the intelligence or the irony. but hey, so what.
certain people will be dismissive of sassy (and of teenage girls) no
matter what, and i've learned you can't waste too much energy trying to
win em over, 'cause you're doomed to fail.
i've certainly continued to explore the net since the article. well, maybe
explore isn't right, since i've confined myself mainly to mindvox forums
and america online and a few forays into usenet news groups, and of
course, major mongo email usage. i've been thrilled with the result of
running our email address in the mag. i could give a fuck about the
hostile compunerdboys who decide to send hate mail but aren't at all
familiar with the mag. i do very much like hearing from our college age
readers, who tend to write less than the high schoolers and of course have
slightly diff concerns and interests. and since it's so much easier to
email than get it up to use snailmail, we get a lot of conversational
letters as opposed to strongly worded emotional ones (obviously you have
to feel pretty strongly to send snailmail, otherwise why bother to write
to a magazine?).
i like making trouble on america online. the trivia games (i rule) and
attempting to squash male ego in private rooms. i go on a friend's account
and we have bonding fun.
the feedback from the article has been interesting. generally people with
a sense of humor got it and were entertained. some didn't understand how
sassy works, that it's all about one writer's experience and the article
didn't purport to be a comprehensive guide to the internet or something.
it was ABOUT being a newbie, as well as about gender (does it exist in
cyberspace, since you can fuck with people's perceptions so easily, is it
a sexist environment, what's it like being a new girl in a very male
space, is there a typical female BBSer). the piece made some very good
points, i thought, in a very writ-small way, and i'm proud of it. it
wasn't intended to be a big thing--either a sweeping indictment or a
sweeping endorsement, and i was clear that it was just about one teeny
corner of online culture. however, some people couldn't get past the sassy
voice and thought (still think) i am one big tremendous girly girl moron.
i got really lovely feedback for the most part--including letters from
some well known old school hackers and a really funny few notes from bruce
sterling, who got it completely and is now a subscriber. i've also
deepened a few existing friendships thru email--since i am a lousy
correspondent, it's such a blessing, particularly with a friend of mine
in france and a former intern at sassy who was in england for a spell. a
few of my online contacts (new relationships) ended up turning into sassy
internships for the kids in question. yeeha. i also
made friends with a novelist whose work i really like and started a jokey
relationship with wired magazine, which i think is absolutely beyond
groovy. thought so before we had this mutual admiration society. girls in
general have strongly agreed with me about the pitfalls of BBSing, about
being harrassed, in particular, but most feel it's completely worth it to
explore the net.
about forging a comfy space for oneself in the online
world. it can be a harsh place (example of my own growth: in the article i
was perplexed by the ease with which regular bbsers called cyberspace a
place, now i myself do it seamlessly). i get flamed so often and get such
hostility, but not from anyone who matters. i have to remember that.
there's also me vs. sassy--people who randomly flame sassy don't tend to
have read it or have no sense of humor to speak of. lately i've been
trying to gently address sexism on line a bit more--speaking up when i see
it on mindvox. but now i don't feel it's worth it. i've been called
humorless bitch and feminazi too often (kind of funny, since that's quite
in opppostion to fluffy dumb bunny teenybopper that i'm also called), but
again, that's only a part of the experience. for a writer, email and
forums are great free-ers. know what i mean? in my sassy stories, i sweat
the phrasing so much and rewrite and cut and rewrite and cut. this way i
just GO. it's liberating. and i've heard from so many wonderful,
interesting people. everyone here at sassy mocks me bigtime for being
online so much. it's deeply pathetic, i have become such the wee
cyberdork. but i do love this as a communication tool. not much else. i've
avoiding IRC and MUDs because then i will truly have no life (i have done
both, but do not wish to overindulge thankee).
we run our email address in every letters column now. people send poetry
too, for our Stuff You Wrote column, and online zines, but i'm only taking
letters to the editor off this.
anonymity? why would i want it? people will bash and flame, and that's
cool. we want a dialogue. that's what's wrong with journalism in
general--there is a pretense of objectivity in mainstream journalism (no
one is objective) and we can't pretend to be bestowing knowledge on the
news-starved. it SHOULD be anarchic (sorta) and multi-voiced,
multi-lingual. reminds me of mikhail bakhtin, literary theory--the notion
of the novel as this multivoiced form, allowing more points of view
than an essay, say, or a poem. he'd truly groove on the net, no?
when i have my own acct at home, i want anonymity. as sassy, no. i do
think it's bizarre that some people are upset that we're here--why are
they, i wonder? other than hating teenage girls?
i'm very interested in posting vs. lurking, how male female dynamics here
do seem to parallel those in the real world. men do more than their share
of the talking. ok, let's make this the harassment paragraph. when you get
paged over and over or when men post extensively and thoughtlessly and
lasciviously descriptively about women's body parts, that is annoying. and
when men don't see, when they're discussing philosphy and gender issues,
that the playing field is NOT level, that a woman objectifying a man is
NOT yet the same as a man objectifying a woman (if women ever break thru
the glass ceiling and earn $1 for every $1 men earn and are represented
50/50 in Congress, then hey, we'll talk). here on mindvox the women online
forum is getting better, but it's still mostly males who post. and they're
often FURIOUS at the thought of a women-only forum.it's sooooo
threatening. it's sooooooo reverse sexist, they feel. NOT. gentlemen, i
really wouldn't worry about women taking over the corridors of power.
it'll be interesting to see what happens.
i`ve heard from wonderful, interesting people and it's intriguing to see
how simultaneously open and deceptive communication is here. it's often
easier to pour out your heart when it's not f2f, or when it's not someone
you know in the flesh. but people do get off on creating personae,
exploiting others' trust. i haven't felt deceived, but i hear from girls
who have. one funny thing--the first time i met someone in RL whose
acquaintance i'd originally made online, i totally freaked. i felt sick
and weird, like i was crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. i wanted
our relationship to stay in the virtual world. it's not like it was a date
or anything (he was married and i was in a serious relationship) but it
just felt wrong to try to switch formats. Fascinating.
i wish mindvox were still a more welcoming place for women. my sassy story
concluded that we can't wait for men to just invite us in and act all
nice. we have to charge the barricades. this IS the future, and if we
don't familiarize ourselves with it now, we'll just end up massaging the
shoulders of the guy at the keyboard. (metaphor alert!) i hope sassy
encourages more girls to take the technology plunge. we try to. we try to
make them laugh and be unafraid of stuff in general. maybe in the future
we won't have to nurture girls, 'cause they'll be bursting with self
esteem and ruling bandwidth. i hope so.
i never claimed to be a pro--the point of that feature was to show what
it's like to be a newbie. and i don't claim to be any kind of emissary and
am not trying to market anything (duh) and i don't have an album coming
out called cyberpunk or anything. now i'm just a mailbox. a mailbox with
opinions.
did i forget anything?
ok? ok.
--margie
==============
SIGNAL/NOISE
Signal/noise: the ratio between the useful information in a given
environment and the useless nonsense that inevitably accompanies it, even
threatens to drown it out. It's a useful measure, as long as you don't need
to reduce it to a number or something. But always remember: one
net.entity's signal is another's noise. And an environment which one person
finds objectionably noisy may seem serene to someone else. There are many
voices out there - many kinds of voices - and many environments that affect
how those voices appear to other folks across the wires. What follows is a
dip into the ocean of such voices, presented in such a way as to preserve
the feel of the particular environment. Much of it was generated on the
spot in realtime interactive settings, and it has that mix of exciting
spontenaity and confusion. It's up to you to decide what's signal and
what's noise.
__IVAN THE NEWBIE__
We couldn't have an issue about new voices without talking to someone who
is actually a new voice (and hasn't been the center of attention since
minute one). So we went out and found us a basic, real, anonymous newbie,
and we sat down and asked him how his arrival on the net has affected his
world. Here's what happened...
voices: when did you actually get on the net?
ivan k: actually i was on the net at the end of the school year, just for a
little bit.
v: so that would be May?
i: yeah, 1993
v: May 1993. first impressions?
i: well, first impression, first of all i didn't know what to do because i
was going into it on my own accord and i didn't sign up for it, like, as
a class, or anything. Nobody had told me... Well actually somebody had
told me about it, somebody that i knew in New York city said that they had
been on the internet for a while and they said it was really, a really
nice system to be on and there were a lot of cool things about it, but i
really didn't know that much about it. so i work at the radio station and
i'd heard some things about music bulletin boards and things like that, so
i asked the head guy if he would let me have a password because at this
time they weren't giving passwords to the undergrads. So i went over to the
offices and got a password, then i went in and basically all i did for the
first three or four weeks was just read off the bulletin boards. i didn't
feel very...
v: when you say bulletin boards, you mean usenet?
i: yes, i still today don't feel comfortable enough to post things on it
because i don't feel like an expert on anything.
v: so you feel a pressure being new, and not knowing what's going on exactly?
i: right, right. and i'm afraid of getting flamed.
v: which usenet news groups are you talking about?
i: there is some, just like the heavy metal, the hard rock, the alternative
music, actually i'm on, there's a devo which i read occasionally
v: mostly rec.music or alt.music stuph?
i: alt.music stuff. and then i was in that for a while and then somebody
turned me on to MOO-ing, and that kept me addicted for a while. and i just
started to learn how to ftp, download files from other sites and i'm still
fooling around with the gopher, and trying to figure out what that's all
about.
v: most of the MOO-ing has been at Lambda[MOO]?
i: most of it yeah, Lambda. i'm just getting into the FurryMUCK, even as we
speak.
v: so you really have a certain amount of standoffishness about posting
because of the flames and stuph?
i: right, right.
v: it's affected your "voice"?
i: yeah, yeah, the first thing i noticed about it didn't seem very
professional but at the same time if somebody said something that somebody
else thought was stupid, then everybody else would, you know...
v: let loose?
i: yeah. i suppose you're going to have that with the internet though.
v: do you think that the strong voices, which may be the persuasive voices
there, are really a function of expertise, or are they just the loudest?
i: yeah, they're loudest. and i don't see a lot of expertise, because i work
with talking to promoters, and the companies themselves and a lot of them
don't even know about the internet. which is suprising. and it will be
interesting to see how long it takes them to catch on to it, before
they're posting things up, like... i don't know if they would go into
advertising.
v: so you've been on almost four months, do you still consider yourself a
"newbie"?
i: yeah, because i really don't know that much about programming and all, and
anything i learn i ask from people i know, yeah, i still consider myself a
newbie.
v: does programming expertise have much of anything to do with being, say,
a competent usenet poster?
i: are you saying do i feel afraid of the internet because i don't know how?
v: yeah, are you afraid of the internet because of the language basically?
i: i feel like i'm only seeing about twenty-five percent of the internet
and there's like seventy-five percent that i don't know about, but i would
like to know more about. i kind of feel like i've been asleep for ten or
fifteen years and i'm just trying to catch up with everything.
v: and you get kind of thrown into a hole?
i: right, exactly.
v: i guess my question was, in part, do you still feel like a usenet newbie?
i: yeah, yeah because i haven't used it for a lot of like class research
kind of things yet because i didn't have any classes over the summer.
v: you're not over the posting hump?
i: right that's true
v: you come out of your first flame war a different person.
[laughing]
v: you get a thick skin real quick on the internet. tell us about some of
your experiences in MOO-space/MUD-space.
i: well, i learned that privacy was a thing to be respected. i was just
porting around, teleporting from room to room and i ported in one room and
i said "hi" and i was basically blown out of the room, and i learned about
the etiquette which is really important. i think that's common sense, but i
think you have to have it or people are going to run amok.
v: what's the appeal of MOO-space or MUD-space? you spend a lot of time
there.
i: i like the interaction aspect where it's like having a phone
conversation with five or six different people at once. my typing speed
has increased, so that's a plus.
v: side effect?
i: side effect/plus. i was really into role playing games when i was in
high school, and i dropped out of that when i got to college, and this has
got me hooked back into that again. it kind of reminds me of Zork in that
way but it's a lot more interactive in the fact that you can build things
on the game. I'm just learning how to do that as well, which i think
is really neat.
v: do you see it in any way as a MUD being a sort of forced participation
kind of usenet? in usenet it's asynchronous, you can not post and just
read. in a MUD you almost have to speak.
i: yeah, i can see it that way. it's a lot more relaxed to some extent.
v: not as much flaming?
i: right.
v: or would people just ignore you? did you ever get flamed?
i: it seemed that ninety-nine percent of the people that i hung around
with, they were really nice and courteous and you could ask the dumbest
questions and they would help you out a lot which i find to be really, um,
nice. it's just a friendly kind of atmosphere and i'm surprised that it
took me this long to find out about it.
v: so just inferring from what you told us about being leery about posting
to usenet, i would think that you would be in the camp that would say "a
voice on the net can be powerful"?
i: yes, it can
v: and you have to be careful how you use it?
i: right, exactly. the thing with usenet is the same thing with printed
media but not as much, i mean it's...
v: the closest to print?
i: right. the stuff doesn't hold up in court right?
v: we'll see.
i: hellllloooo tippper...
[laughing]
i: but comparing it to a MUD, if you say something you can kind of
retract it and say "look i'm sorry, i didn't mean to say that," whereas if
you post it on usenet, it's there and people are going to read it and
pass it on to other people
v: have you joined any listservs or anything like that?
i: well, i'm on *yours*... that's really it though i haven't gotten into
mailing lists that much. still a newbie.
v: we've been doing a lot of thinking about that especially for this issue,
what constitutes a newbie? because you've been on since May and we haven't
been on much longer, but a lot of people around the net wouldn't consider us
to be newbies.
i: right, i think it has to do with what you use the internet for, whether
it's for recreation or for something serious
v: can you tell the difference, i'm not always sure i can anymore? it's a
big question, have you been to MediaMOO?
i: yeah
v: well that's supposed to be a serious MOO. But what
about Lambda, what is Lambda for? What do you see it used for, why?
i: why does it exist? Oh man! that's a really heavy question!
v: do you see it as a social thing, as entertainment?
i: yeah, i see it as a social thing, but i also notice that in certain
conversations people will specifically talk about things like programming
or if you go to any of the news rooms or the mail room there will be
things dedicated to specific topics.
v: do you see any possibility of that sort of thing being used for...
i: real things?
v: yeah, like having a class there or say, business meetings?
i: yeah i think it's possible, i can't make any predictions or anything. i
think that in the couple articles i've read about it they always say at
the last part of the article "wouldn't it be neat for congressmen and
congresspeople to have these sorts of meetings"
v: the term virtual community is being kicked around a lot particularly in
relation to MOO-space and that's Lambda, Media, the prime examples of
social spaces that might in some sense be communities, what do you make of
that? do you feel a part of a Lambda community or even an overall
net.community?
i: it does have this sense of belonging or being in a special kind of club
or anything and that's a good feeling to have.
v: have you met people that you talk to over the net now on a regular basis
that you consider yourself friends with?
i: yeah, it's kind of strange, it's like having a pen pal that you can talk
to every day without knowing what they look like or what they do. You know
i kind of feel like i'm missing out on a lot of stuff.
v: and how do you feel you're going to find that?
i: i'm going to have to come to a point where i'm going to need to
accumulate vast amounts of information
v: what do you think you need? do you need location information or a
knowledge of UNIX?
i: UNIX and location.
v: so you think it's a dual language thing?
i: yeah, yeah.
v: do you have sense of what it is you're not getting to yet? what are the
next couple of things you want to tackle?
i: i'd like to work out the gopher system a little bit more, and i don't
know, i just feel like there's a lot of information that i'm not
accessing, which i could be but i'd have to have a purpose to it, i can't just
run around and access information randomly, i think that's important too.
and that's probably the main reason that i've been MOO-ing and MUD-ing is
because that's the only real purpose i've had for it besides e-mail.
v: how powerful do you think your voice is, and maybe, how powerful do you
think it could be? what's your sense of how far you're heard and with the
resources at your disposal?
i: i think i could be really loud if i wanted to, but at this point i don't
feel comfortable enough with the internet to start shooting my mouth off,
i don't think i would want to do that.
v: do you really feel that the people who shoot their mouths off
necessarily have all that much importance to say?
i: i think in everything they say, there's probably a couple of
nuggets of things that are good
v: pretty low signal/noise ratio.
i: right, right, right, you can tell that usually by the responses that they
get, which sometimes they can be ridiculous just, it seems they are
wasting a lot of space just to tell one person that they are stupid for
thinking this. which i think is unfair, but..
v: do you have a sense of the international scope of the net? are you a
citizen of the electronic world? yet, are you dealing with people from
other countries?
i: kind of, in that in the MOOs and MUDs there have been people from other
countries log in there and we'll "where are you from? blah, blah,
blah," "oh i'm from England", "oh wow" to that extent i do but i don't
think i would if i wasn't accessing information from another country.
v: you said before you felt like a newbie. how long do you think it will
take you not to? what do you think you will have to know? what position
will you have to be in not to be a newbie? do people call you a newbie,
and does it bug you?
i: only when i do something that is obviously newbie, like i'll just type
in a command wrong or something, and then, [kathunk] "Newbie!" but usually
people don't know unless you do something different than that. i found it
reassuring that a lot of people that i talk to, i asked "are you really
into this programming thing?" and they're like "no, i don't know the first
thing"
v: so that's a pretty friendly place?
i: yeah, that makes me feel relaxed.
v: the original question was when do you think you won't consider yourself
new?
i: i think, oh boy, i would like to know more about gophering, i would like
to ftp to sites without looking down at the directions every time i do it,
v: what can you do so that other people can see that you're not a newbie?
i: i think maybe having a more active voice on the net. in a way i feel
like a faceless person among a million other faceless persons.
=========
__NET BIO: INDIGO__
Sometimes we don't have to go out and find voices. Sometimes they come to
us. (That's the way we met one of next issue's featured folks.) The
following bit appeared on the FutureCulture e-list (and is reprinted with
the full permission of the poster). The then-current thread concerned how
people came to the net originally. And we present Indigo's history as only
one of many wonderful net.life stories presented there...
Subject: Re: net.auto.biography =)
5th Grade Pong! by Atari
6th Grade Atari 2600 (Pacman, Space Defenders, Defenders)
7th Grade Sinclair (broke that in 2 weeks)
7th Grade Apple II, IIe (Mom brought home from school on the weekends and
I took programming classes on it During the summer
but most of all it sat in the basement gathering dust
next to me Atari 2600) =)
9th Grade C64 (Bought this to write papers and play games... no more
programming)
College Macintosh! ! ! ( Lewis and Clark College is moving to an all
mac campus )
Junior Year Internet Email Account. *cheer*
The Graduate Account on Netcom $19.50 month for everything I could want.
The employee Am Getting more and more of my aqquaintances on the net. I
think my family is joining cause it's the only way to reach
me most of the time =))) :-(
The first thing I disoverd was USENET, then Email (not mail lists yet), then
FTP. FTP was the godsend. Thru ftp I found maillists (fc [FutureCulture]
included), muds, gopher and IRC (which I never got to work until three
months ago)
One thing you might notice that is conspicuously absent from my chronology is
the world of BBSing. I didn't know what those were till I ftp'd Zamfields BBS
list. I was like "WOW. if I'd know these existed when I was in High school, I
might have kept up with my programming classes.
Not knowing programming is something I regret more and more everyday. If
someone knows of a good way to learn C or C++, that doesn't cost much, I'd
appreciate it. As it stands I know just a little bit of LPC from LPmuds that
I've wizzed on =) ... Want I want to have is a stronger feeling of how scripts
work (an accounting package my company is looking at is based on C++ and
scripting) and how to code simple programs to streamline some of the stuph I
repeat everyday here on Netcom.
Now... I've surfed a lot of the net, but each day I find 3 or 4 new places I
want to check out.. that might have something totally new to me, or have
something I want to share with FC folx (my primary home on the net) or the
folx I am introducing to the net.
The future ???
-- Indigo
============
FEATURE: _Adam Curry_
On with our "newbie" issue--although, as you'll see, Adam Curry is not
exactly new to computers. Last spring, at about the same time that _Sassy_
and Billy Idol were making their respective splashes hereabout, Adam also
appeared, with much of the usual MTV fanfare. Adam quickly made his
presence felt on the rec.music hierarchy, and ran a video rating party on
IRC. That the response was mixed is something that should come as no
surprise to anyone. So, rather than rattle on anymore, perhaps we'll just
let Adam take it from here...
A "Brief" (sure, Adam ;) Bio:
Born and raised in the US., Adam Curry made his first broadcasting mark on
radio and television in Europe, where he lived from 1972 to 1987. Living in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, he was the host of the hit television show
"CountDown", a daily music television show with guests and live
performances. CountDown is broadcast in 22 different countries in Europe,
and Adam was named "Most popular European TV and radio personality" for
three consecutive years. Curry was also the host of several other radio
and television programs for the biggest Dutch broadcasting company "Veronica"
Adam Curry's background includes production and directing credits on
numerous radio and television projects, in Europe and the United States.
In 1987 Adam Curry began working for MTV, hosting "The Top 20 Countdown."
Curry co-writes the show and is involved in production and hosting of
several other MTV programs. Adam was also involved in the production and
hosted MTV's "Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award" and "The Moscow Music
Peace Festival."
Since the beginning of 1989 Adam has also been a host on New York's number
1 Top 40 radio station WHTZ (Z-100) doing both morning and alternately
afternoon drive timionally syndicated call-in radio talk/music show
produced by Endless Summer Entertainment. He is also host, writer and
producer of "The Buzz" a twice-daily radio feature, syndicated by Endless
Summer. Other radio ventures include "Pepsi's Top 30 HitList with Adam
Curry", where he is host and co-executive producer.
As of this writing Adam Curry has just re-negotiated his agreement with MTV
to continue his hosting, writing and production duties for 2 weekly shows
on Saturdays and Sundays.
Adam is also active in the field of acting> He studied for 2 years Jackie
Segal in New York, and has appeared on NBC's "Another World" and just
recently appeared as a special guest star in a lead role in an episode of
"Swamp Thing," entitled "Smoke and Mirrors."
>"Brief" enough for ya?
>But, wait! There's more! Take it away, Mr. Curry...
<Voices> What areas have you explored on the net? How much have you
>done? To what uses have you put the online environment, either
>personally or professionally?
Since I've been on the Net for a relatively short time, I first got
acquainted with the options that are mot common; FTP, telnet, IRC, Finger
etc. All very new and mysterious, especially for someone coming from 5
years of Compu$erve and "cushy" GUI's! It took me a while to figure out
that Gopher could get me a desired file faster than FTP in most cases.
I have done some "ratings" tests on music videos and through that created
the "Curry-Curve". Check out the rec.music.video newsgroup for more on the
tests and how to participate.
<Voices> What areas of the net have you enjoyed most, and least? What
>has been the appeal, or lack thereof, of these particular
>environments?
I enjoy the newsgroups the most the most, specifically all the Mac related
topics, and enjoy telnetting through the cyber-universe.
<Voices> Generally, are you having a good time? Have you been made
>welcome, or at least found some comfortable spaces?
Aside from the fact that EMail now takes up more time than it should, which
I'm sure will subside over time, I'm loving every instant of the InterNet.
I'm also subscribe to several very cool lists, like the one from The
Netherlands. I grew up Amsterdam you see, so I still get to keep current on
news there.
<Voices> The question that we keep asking, of interviewees and of
>ourselves, is what it might mean to be a "voice from the net."
>Cyberpace is a big place. How easy have you found it to be
>"heard"? how hard or easy do you imagine it to be for the
>"average user"?
It appears to me to be extremely easy for one single "voice on the Net" to
be heard loud and clear globally. The "beauty part" of the Net if you will,
is the anonymity of it. Even I could have chosen to be any alias I wanted.
More than once have I had conversation with Netters, when later their
picture showed up in some trade mag and I thought to myself, "Wow, I might
never have spoken to that person" or "Never thought someone who looked like
that could be that insightful."
Now I'm not a prejudiced person by nature, but it just shows how we deprive
ourselves of many interesting contacts and relationships outside of
cyberspace.
On the Net, all are equal, and I can't wait for the day that users around
the globe can converse simultaneously using their own language, yet
receiving messages translated to their native tongue instantaneously.
<Voices> Having followed the discussions in various Usenet groups, we
>know that your appearance on the net was not universally
>applauded. There's been a certain amount of Adam Curry and MTV
>bashing. How has that affected you and your experiences? Were
>you expecting the flames?
Ha, Flamers, one of the Net's truly overrated "features." Here's what
happens most of the time: someone flames me severely in a NewsGroup. I
respond to that person, usually by Mail, as not to clutter up the group,
and they will most likely respond with a much kinder attitude. Wise man
once say: The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword. That makes my PowerBook an
AK-47 ;-)
<Voices> The "buzz" on the net has you pegged as a "newbie." Had you
>had any online experience before the MTV assignment?
First let me be very clear about my computer background:
I have been fooling around with them ever since my dad brought me home a
Sinclair ZX, with a whopping 3K memory upgrade module. I soon "graduated" to
the Commodore "Vic-20", on to the 64, and via a Mac+, II, N140, PB170, and
finally now to my Duo 230 with Docking station. I've been on BBS's and
American Online, CI$, Genie, MCI-Mail, AppleLink, esistreet, and now the
Internet. I had read so much about it that I really wanted to check it out.
So I got an account at a NY commercial pdial, "panix" and set off to
Netting. MTV had nothing to do with it at all. In fact, they are still
trying to boot up the WANG ;-) Not Kidding either!
<Voices> We're talking about new voices, but in some sense you never had
>a chance to be "new"--at least as far as most of the net was
>concerned. Similar things have happened to the folks from _Sassy_
>on MindVox , and to Billy Idol with his Well account. How might
>your situation be different from that of a new voice that has none
>of the instant affiliations (MTV, etc...) that your voice does? Have
>netfolx been responding to Adam Curry or to MTV?
First things first, I think Billy Idol may be a bit of a poser when it
comes to the "cyberpunk" bit. I interviewed him last month on the Top 20
Countdown for MTV, and I threw some real easy stuff at him, like, "I'm on
the InterNet too" he went "Huh?, oh you mean you got EMail too?" Yeah,
thanks Bill.....
I believe that the Net functions like a global "neighborhood cafe" where we
can always find someone to help us out with a question or problem we have,
be it computers, travel, sex... It's endless. So let me be the MTV
"connection", not that I can assure you that Rush will be played Thursday
night at 9:07pm, cause I don't program the place, but I'm happy to
investigate stuff, and try to make some issues more understandable, but
most of all, I like to bs with everybody about anything, and always turn to
my "cyberfriends" for an answer first.
<Voices> There is a great deal of posturing, imposture and role-playing
>online. Some of us use screen-names. Some create personas that are
>very different from there personalities in "real-life." To what
>extent has the Adam Curry that we've seen on rec.music.video and
>IRC been a net-persona or an MTV-persona? Do you feel more, or
>less, free either to "be yourself" or to play around when you're
>online?
Good point, and I believe you are who you think you are, and since we are
only dealing with direct mind-terminal-terminal-mind structure, you can't
almost help but be yourself. No, the guy you see on MTV is definitely a bit
different from the one you see on the Net. I always tell my wife, if I can
find out to make as much money with computers as with MTV and radio, I'd
chuck it all immediately. Sounds kinda funky, huh? True though. And perhaps
the only way is to "Just Do It." (Sorry Nike) Perhaps one day I will.
<Voices> Will you stick around? Have your experiences online made you
>want to continue as part of the Internet community? Are there
>things you haven't done "out here" that you still want to do?
I'm always building on my connection software, I need to get a SLIP
connection in order to use most Mac InterNet tools, and have decided to
give UNIX a whirl as well. panix has a tutorial program that I intend to
master one of these days. I also hope to continue using the Net and it's
users for my "Curry-Curve" ratings tests.
<Voices> Finally, what are you up to these days, personally or
>professionally, that you would like to share?
I have just signed a three year agreement to produce two television shows
for syndication in the US. The first is "On the Road with Adam Curry,"
where I visit the homes of musical superstars around the world. Elton John,
Jon Bon Jovi, Eddie Money and Lionel Ritchie will be featured in the first
4 shows, set to air in February.
The other program will start airing fall 1993, and is entitled "RAVE." I
go to underground "Rave-Parties" in 12 separate major European cities.
RAVE is music-intensive, highlighting house and techno music.
>LATE-BREAKING NEWSFLASH! Since we talked to Adam, he has made good on his
intention to stick around these virtual parts, and has begun work on an
electronic news-service called..."CyberSleaze." The first installments were
released to the net a few weeks ago, and then publication ceased, but Adam
promises that the service will return very soon--at a site of its own,
MTV.com. Stay tuned...
=============
A SHOuT IN THE DARK
"In a way I feel like a faceless person among a million
other faceless persons."
--Ivan K.
Faceless, nameless, helpless.
A new place is always a bit scary. How will you make your mark? Get people
to notice you? Win friends and influence people? Survive?
Social survival on the net is even more difficult, i think, than in rl. In
previous issues we've talked about the shear size of the net being
overwhelming. This is brought into pinpoint focus by listening to someone
who has just arrived and opened the door to a room whose walls they can't
see, whose ceiling they can't touch.
Like the new student in school, bumbling around, trying to find his next
class, the newbie on the net has no real sense of direction. And also like
that new student, he must push on through the taunts of those who are
already established, finding some who will help and become friends,
and some who will try to steal your lunch money.
The net seems, to me, like a new fraternity (phi kappa data?) in which
the new members must go through initiation in order to become a part of
the community. We all get spanked when we do something that puts off the
"brothers."
"What's a cyberpunk?"
"What's William Gibson's email address?
Try these on alt.cyberpunk.
or how about....
Can somebody send me an ftp site for this stuff?
Try that one out on alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.
You'll get your initiation all right.
It's called flaming, look it up.
And then you get to be a member, a net.brother (yes i know this sounds
sexist, but i think it IS more of a fraternity than a sorority).
You get to laugh at the questions and defend with indignity your "right"
to be here while others are simply here to jump the train called the
internet (right Billy? Adam? Marjorie?).
Well folks, it's time to get used to it. The net is going to grow, it's
growing right now, exponentially. More and more people are going to enter
this e-ticket ride, and I'm not saying we should be the smiling guy at the
gate welcoming them and taking their tickets, but let's try to remember
what it was like for us when we first arrived.
Everyone has their own comfort zone.
Some people like roller-coasters.
Some like long, lingering walks on the beach.
And some like it hot
And some like it cool
but like it or not, this is what we got
a space age party that's never gonna stop.*
Have you hugged your newbie today?
see ya.
[*special thanks to Sigue Sigue Sputnik for that last piece of wisdom]
--NEURO
==========
PREVIEWS: _Voices from the Net 1.3_
Next issue, we turn from the folks who make the voices to the
circumstances under which they speak. We're talking to a couple of experts
in the field of translating the world of computers into a language us
regular folks can understand. Harley Hahn, author of "A Student's Guide to
UNIX" and a forthcoming guide to the Internet, will lead off, and, if all
goes well (we've heard promises before), he'll be joined by David Pogue,
author of "Macs for Dummies," MacWorld's "Desktop Critic" column, and the
novel "Hard Drive." And, of course, all of the usual signal/noise...
See ya then...
==========
INFO
"Voices from the Net" is an electronic magazine filled with interviews,
and essays presenting the "voices" of folks from a wide variety of online
environments. Its purpose is to be both entertaining and useful -
net-literature and net-ethnography combined. The editors are
committed to an exploration of as many of the odd corners of "cyberspace"
as they can access, and they welcome readers to join them for the ride.
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The archive sites for the text-only version are:
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wiretap.spies.com /Library/Zines
Hypercard versions are available at:
aql.gatech.edu /pub/Zines/Voices_from_the_Net
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And both versions are available to Mindvox subscribers in the uploads
section of the archives.
==============
ACCEPTABLE USE
In a perfect world, we could just post this, send it out through the wires
and forget about it. In a perfect world... In this world, we have things
like copyright laws, legal permissions, the need to "own" one's words.
This document is free, but it is not public domain. The individual authors
retain the rights to their work. You may reproduce and distribute it. In
fact, we encourage it. Spreading free information is part of what "Voices
from the Net" is all about. Just keep it FREE. We hope that the zine will
be useful as well as entertaining. If it seems useful to you, then use it.
But be collegial. Cite your sources(*), and don't take liberties with the
text. Respect the voices contained here. [* Thanks to Bruce Sterling for
inspiration, and for support.]
Voices from the Net 1.1, copyright 1993.
======================================================================
