A MISCELLANY OF QUESTIONS OF ACCESS TO FREENETS...

The issue of long-distance dial-up charges was raised.  This a
problem common to freenets.  One solution is to dial in via a
local number , eg., through Telenet.  Another possible solution
is for your freenet to acquire leased lines.


CAN SCHOOLS OR OTHER ORGANIZATIONS WITH A REQUIREMENT FOR ACCESS TO
FREENET GET A DEDICATED LINE INSTALLED AT THEIR LOCATION SO THAT THEY
DO NOT HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM OF DIALING IN?

     Essentially this question was addressed based on the access
policy of the NCF.  The NCF have allowed dedicated lines to be
installed in such places as the Ottawa Public Library and will
look at other situations on a case by case basis.  The general
policy is that access from the dedicated terminal must be
accessible to the general public.


WHAT ABOUT DISTANCE EDUCATION THROUGH THE FREENET?

     There was some discussion on the use of the Freenet as a
tool in the delivery of university credit courses.  Distance
education that is currently done by Carleton University through
TV programming, was cited as an area where Freenet might be used
to help a student learn a subject.  For example, by having access
to the professor through electronic mail, a student could leave
detailed questions and get responses quite quickly.  It was
pointed out that courses such as this take place on the internet
quite regularly.

     It was mentioned that the Rhode Island Freenet association
is planning to have a fibre optic link, provided by the cable
companies, that would allow for the delivery of multimedia
information that is ideal for interactive learning and distance
education.


FREENET AND THE ARTS COMMUNITY

     The services that are available to the arts community were
discussed briefly.  It was pointed out that there are a
significant number of newsgroups available in the existing
Freenets that are related to various forms of the arts.


WHAT DO THEY MEAN BY "POWER USERS, TRUSTED USERS AND SUPER USERS"
(see agenda)?

     A power user is a person who is beyond the novice level and
has mastered some of the tricks of the Freenet.

     A trusted user refers to an information provider who has
read and write capabilities to a specific area of the Freenet. 
This will be the area where the information provider can update
the information from their organization.  It was pointed out that
this "techie" language was not all that appropriate and that it
implied that all other users were untrustworthy.  It was
suggested that this could more appropriately be addressed by
referring to access levels.

     A super user is a programmer/administrator with access to
the entire UNIX shell of the Freenet system.


PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES...

     There was some discussion on the disabled community's access
to FreeNets. With reference to the fact that often disabled
groups discussion forums get hidden away in the Health and Social
issues, one participant informed the group of the Talahassee
FreeNet's move to put Disabled Issues as a main menu item.  Other
members of the group mentioned that using the GO command is an
easy way to by-pass the menu structure.


GENDER ISSUES...

     The discussion then turned to gender issues.  One
participant expressed concern that this was not a true community
network because it did not represent a true cross-section of
society/the community.  Users are (probably), predominantly
white, male, educated, straight, and computer literate).

     How do we get more women involved?  the reason there are not
as many women involved may stem from even bigger issues - the
fact that more women are live in poverty and have less education
then men. 

     There was concerned that a clear sexual harassment policy
was not initiated right from the outset (in the case of NCF) - it
should be a perogative to make equity an issue.

     Another participant stated that the individuals the most
involved in the Internet and organizing the Internet have been
those individuals involved in the library profession, a
profession dominated by women (80-20).  why has there not been
enough publicity about women's participation?  Another librarian
pointed out that in the portion of the library field involved
with networks and the more technical side the male/female balance
is not as one-sided.

     Some participant were concerned with why certain groups were
not invited to participate in the FreeNet.  The reaction was that
the NCF runs on a volunteer basis, and there is no way one can
cover every group. On the other hand, the group at the conference
doesn't look like the group on an average Toronto subway car -- we
have to wonder if we are accidentally excluding some people.  FreeNets
should make a special effort to invite and encourage participation.


A BILINGUAL FREENET

     There was a lot of discussion about the difficulties involved in
having a bilingual FreeNet, and how it should work.  One approach
would be to have the user choose his/her language preference, and then
have menus diverge from there.  The other choice would be to have the
same menu available in both languages, with information and discussion
in the language in which it was provided.  No conclusion was reached,
although the breadth of the problem was well defined.  However, it was
concluded that this is essentially a "programming problem"  -- that
can be resolved when the policy issues are resolved.


RURAL ACCESS

     There is an international group called the Association for
Progressive Communications, represented by the WEB in Canada that uses
FIDOnet to provide communications to groups in Nicragua, Brazil and
Africa by running a program called "FrontDoor."  It allows users to
have daily (or bi-weekly, or weekly) connections to the internet in a
batch mode.  Robert Thompson (see attendees) will gladly provide
details.  This might be a good solution for setting up community
networks where internet access is not readily available.  Other
protocols would probably also work, such as Waffle UUCP protocols.