1048 lines
47 KiB
Plaintext
1048 lines
47 KiB
Plaintext
From swilbur@andy.bgsu.edu Mon Sep 6 01:10:01 1993
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Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1993 20:12:37 -0400 (EDT)
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From: bookish <swilbur@andy.bgsu.edu>
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Reply to: Voices-request@andy.bgsu.edu
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To: voices@andy.bgsu.edu
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Subject: VoicesFromTheNet1.2
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**************************
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Can * VOICES FROM THE NET *
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you * VOICES FROM THE NET * ---
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hear * *
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our * 1.2 * Do
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voices * NEW VOICES * you
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? * "The Origins Issue" * read
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* * us
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--- * VOICES FROM THE NET * ?
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* VOICES FROM THE NET *
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**************************
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There are a lot of folks with at least one foot in this complex region we
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call (much too simply) "the net." There are a lot of voices on these wires.
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- all kinds of voices - loud and quiet, anonymous and well-known. And yet,
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it's far from clear what it might mean to be a "voice" from, or on, the
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net. Enter "Voices from the Net": one attempt to sample, explore, the
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possibilities (or perils) of net.voices. Worrying away at the question.
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Running down the meme. Looking/listening, and reporting back to you.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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THIS MAGAZINE WAS CREATED ON A VAX 8650 AND A MACINTOSH NO LONGER PRODUCED
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BY THE APPLE CORPORATION, USING MORE-OR-LESS WHATEVER SOFTWARE WAS AT-HAND.
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(obligatory DIY tech note)
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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_1.2_
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====
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THIS ISSUE:
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--VOICES CARRY
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--FEATURE: Margie Ingall
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--SIGNAL/NOISE
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Ivan the "Newbie"
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Net-Bio: Indigo
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--FEATURE: Adam Curry
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--A SHOuT IN THE DARK
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--PREVIEWS
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--INFO/ARCHIVES/ACCEPTABLE USE
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====
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(New) VOICES CARRY: "In which the truth comes out..."
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Newbies. That's our focus for this issue. What is it like to first
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encounter the net in all its daunting splendor, its richness, its
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rudeness? It's a question to which we all have our own answers. There's no
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escaping it. We all get to be newbies for a while, until we learn the
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ropes. Until we find our place(s) and voice(s). And we may get to relive
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the experience, if we move to some new virtual environment, take on some
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new online task or challenge.
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Because it's not exactly a matter of "How long have *you* been on the
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net?" If it were, then perhaps you wouldn't be reading this, since, to be
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excruciatingly honest, none of us at "Voices" have been online all *that*
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long. Only a little longer than some of the new users that we interviewed,
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in fact. And yet, here we are, and it looks like we'll be around for a
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while. Thanks to all of you, new and experienced users, who have made us
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welcome in your hearts and mailboxes...
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But if our new(bie)ness is not just a matter of duration, of logging
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net.hours, then what is it? Perhaps there's no one factor that's decisive,
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but let's explore a few:
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Maybe it's a matter of welcome, of the first interactions. Every "Sure!
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I'd love to talk to you" has drawn me deeper into the net, as has every
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"Oh, did you know you can <insert your fave trick here>?" But it can also
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work in a negative sense. You learn quickly which corners of cyberspace to
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avoid. Or perhaps the lack of welcome is a challenge... A little adversity
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only sweetens the moment when you can say, "Hey, I've carved out a space
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here!" For this issue, we've talked to some folks who have been greeted
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with less-than-completely-open arms by various online communities. And
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here they still are...
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So perhaps it's a matter of immersion. Time is a funny thing out here, and
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a lot can happen in almost no time at all. Say the wrong thing on a
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newsgroup or e-list and see if you don't become suddenly experienced. Much
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is made of the distinction between lurkers and posters, as if action was
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privileged here, as it is so often in "real life." You're a newbie until
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you take the posting plunge...
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Or maybe there isn't really a magic moment where you master the system,
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and suddenly you're a *REAL* user. Sure, you master your mailer, and then
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go on to grapple with the newsreader of your choice until you're a regular
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Usenet god(dess). But there's always another environment waiting, with
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something that's a little beyond, or a lot beyond, your previous
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experience. Can your MUD, MOO, IRC? Have you compiled a client? Ftp-ed the
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manual? uudecoded? unzipped? gunzipped? telnetted? Used WAIS, WWW,
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Archie, Veronica, Jughead, Gopher? Do you program? In what languages?
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Cool, but have you heard about...
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Maybe there's just a moment where the newness wears off of our (almost
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perpetual) newness. Not that we lose interest, or even our sense of
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wonder, but we begin to feel more comfortable with the challenges and
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changes that are here if we bother to look at all. We don't master the
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net, but we learn that we don't have to to use it, enjoy it...
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Or maybe I just haven't been around long enough to fathom the mysteries of
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the net. But I feel at home. I really do. And it's a good feeling, knowing
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that there are friends no more than a telnet or an e-mail message away.
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Knowing that this is getting through... all over the world. Voices carry.
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listen...
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bookish
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==============
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FEATURE: _Marjorie Ingall: Sassy Magazine_
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In May of this year Sassy magazine printed an article called "Girlz in
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Cyberspace." The article sparked a (cyber?) storm of criticisms, flaming
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and all-around nastiness. It seemed to bring out the worst of all "voices."
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In fact, it seemed to be the subject du jour on the net for almost a month.
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Just about everyone jumped on the bandwagon--some pro, but many con.
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alt.cyberpunk had their usual bashfest concerning the article, but this
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time it seemed even more intense than usual. Why all the criticisms? A
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girl's magazine coming to a boy's playground? In any case, we got in touch
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with the author of the article, Marjorie Ingall, the senior writer for Sassy.
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We thought we would give her a chance to respond to the experience and
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give her take on being a new Voice From The Net...
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>first a short auto-bio:
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i've been at sassy almost three years. now i'm senior writer. the
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online community should not dismiss me or sassy as bimboid, merely because
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the mag is aimed at teenagegirls. why, that would be like saying all men
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online are pocket-protector wearing dorks! my goodness, quel stereotype.
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sassy's a smart and funny magazine. i too am smart and funny. i graduated
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from harvard in 89. i double majored in folklore and mythology and english.
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besides sassy i've written for mccalls fodors and lets go (travel guides)
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and a couple other places. and this year i won two journalism awards--one
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for a story on schizophrenia from the american psychiatric association and
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one for a series on prolife and prochoice teenage activists from the national
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women's political caucus. yeeha.
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>ready, steady, go...
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okay, lessee. i'll just free-associate here. i've found i use a very diff
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voice online than either conversationally or in my sassy writing. no caps
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for one thing, much more free-associative. it seems to allow certain
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people to feed into their stereotypes of sassy as a breathless teenybopper
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thing, without catching the intelligence or the irony. but hey, so what.
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certain people will be dismissive of sassy (and of teenage girls) no
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matter what, and i've learned you can't waste too much energy trying to
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win em over, 'cause you're doomed to fail.
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i've certainly continued to explore the net since the article. well, maybe
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explore isn't right, since i've confined myself mainly to mindvox forums
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and america online and a few forays into usenet news groups, and of
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course, major mongo email usage. i've been thrilled with the result of
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running our email address in the mag. i could give a fuck about the
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hostile compunerdboys who decide to send hate mail but aren't at all
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familiar with the mag. i do very much like hearing from our college age
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readers, who tend to write less than the high schoolers and of course have
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slightly diff concerns and interests. and since it's so much easier to
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email than get it up to use snailmail, we get a lot of conversational
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letters as opposed to strongly worded emotional ones (obviously you have
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to feel pretty strongly to send snailmail, otherwise why bother to write
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to a magazine?).
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i like making trouble on america online. the trivia games (i rule) and
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attempting to squash male ego in private rooms. i go on a friend's account
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and we have bonding fun.
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the feedback from the article has been interesting. generally people with
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a sense of humor got it and were entertained. some didn't understand how
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sassy works, that it's all about one writer's experience and the article
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didn't purport to be a comprehensive guide to the internet or something.
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it was ABOUT being a newbie, as well as about gender (does it exist in
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cyberspace, since you can fuck with people's perceptions so easily, is it
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a sexist environment, what's it like being a new girl in a very male
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space, is there a typical female BBSer). the piece made some very good
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points, i thought, in a very writ-small way, and i'm proud of it. it
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wasn't intended to be a big thing--either a sweeping indictment or a
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sweeping endorsement, and i was clear that it was just about one teeny
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corner of online culture. however, some people couldn't get past the sassy
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voice and thought (still think) i am one big tremendous girly girl moron.
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i got really lovely feedback for the most part--including letters from
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some well known old school hackers and a really funny few notes from bruce
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sterling, who got it completely and is now a subscriber. i've also
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deepened a few existing friendships thru email--since i am a lousy
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correspondent, it's such a blessing, particularly with a friend of mine
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in france and a former intern at sassy who was in england for a spell. a
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few of my online contacts (new relationships) ended up turning into sassy
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internships for the kids in question. yeeha. i also
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made friends with a novelist whose work i really like and started a jokey
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relationship with wired magazine, which i think is absolutely beyond
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groovy. thought so before we had this mutual admiration society. girls in
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general have strongly agreed with me about the pitfalls of BBSing, about
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being harrassed, in particular, but most feel it's completely worth it to
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explore the net.
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about forging a comfy space for oneself in the online
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world. it can be a harsh place (example of my own growth: in the article i
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was perplexed by the ease with which regular bbsers called cyberspace a
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place, now i myself do it seamlessly). i get flamed so often and get such
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hostility, but not from anyone who matters. i have to remember that.
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there's also me vs. sassy--people who randomly flame sassy don't tend to
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have read it or have no sense of humor to speak of. lately i've been
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trying to gently address sexism on line a bit more--speaking up when i see
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it on mindvox. but now i don't feel it's worth it. i've been called
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humorless bitch and feminazi too often (kind of funny, since that's quite
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in opppostion to fluffy dumb bunny teenybopper that i'm also called), but
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again, that's only a part of the experience. for a writer, email and
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forums are great free-ers. know what i mean? in my sassy stories, i sweat
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the phrasing so much and rewrite and cut and rewrite and cut. this way i
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just GO. it's liberating. and i've heard from so many wonderful,
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interesting people. everyone here at sassy mocks me bigtime for being
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online so much. it's deeply pathetic, i have become such the wee
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cyberdork. but i do love this as a communication tool. not much else. i've
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avoiding IRC and MUDs because then i will truly have no life (i have done
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both, but do not wish to overindulge thankee).
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we run our email address in every letters column now. people send poetry
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too, for our Stuff You Wrote column, and online zines, but i'm only taking
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letters to the editor off this.
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anonymity? why would i want it? people will bash and flame, and that's
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cool. we want a dialogue. that's what's wrong with journalism in
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general--there is a pretense of objectivity in mainstream journalism (no
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one is objective) and we can't pretend to be bestowing knowledge on the
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news-starved. it SHOULD be anarchic (sorta) and multi-voiced,
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multi-lingual. reminds me of mikhail bakhtin, literary theory--the notion
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of the novel as this multivoiced form, allowing more points of view
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than an essay, say, or a poem. he'd truly groove on the net, no?
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when i have my own acct at home, i want anonymity. as sassy, no. i do
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think it's bizarre that some people are upset that we're here--why are
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they, i wonder? other than hating teenage girls?
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i'm very interested in posting vs. lurking, how male female dynamics here
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do seem to parallel those in the real world. men do more than their share
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of the talking. ok, let's make this the harassment paragraph. when you get
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paged over and over or when men post extensively and thoughtlessly and
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lasciviously descriptively about women's body parts, that is annoying. and
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when men don't see, when they're discussing philosphy and gender issues,
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that the playing field is NOT level, that a woman objectifying a man is
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NOT yet the same as a man objectifying a woman (if women ever break thru
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the glass ceiling and earn $1 for every $1 men earn and are represented
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50/50 in Congress, then hey, we'll talk). here on mindvox the women online
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forum is getting better, but it's still mostly males who post. and they're
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often FURIOUS at the thought of a women-only forum.it's sooooo
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threatening. it's sooooooo reverse sexist, they feel. NOT. gentlemen, i
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really wouldn't worry about women taking over the corridors of power.
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it'll be interesting to see what happens.
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i`ve heard from wonderful, interesting people and it's intriguing to see
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how simultaneously open and deceptive communication is here. it's often
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easier to pour out your heart when it's not f2f, or when it's not someone
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you know in the flesh. but people do get off on creating personae,
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exploiting others' trust. i haven't felt deceived, but i hear from girls
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who have. one funny thing--the first time i met someone in RL whose
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acquaintance i'd originally made online, i totally freaked. i felt sick
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and weird, like i was crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. i wanted
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our relationship to stay in the virtual world. it's not like it was a date
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or anything (he was married and i was in a serious relationship) but it
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just felt wrong to try to switch formats. Fascinating.
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i wish mindvox were still a more welcoming place for women. my sassy story
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concluded that we can't wait for men to just invite us in and act all
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nice. we have to charge the barricades. this IS the future, and if we
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don't familiarize ourselves with it now, we'll just end up massaging the
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shoulders of the guy at the keyboard. (metaphor alert!) i hope sassy
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encourages more girls to take the technology plunge. we try to. we try to
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make them laugh and be unafraid of stuff in general. maybe in the future
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we won't have to nurture girls, 'cause they'll be bursting with self
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esteem and ruling bandwidth. i hope so.
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i never claimed to be a pro--the point of that feature was to show what
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it's like to be a newbie. and i don't claim to be any kind of emissary and
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am not trying to market anything (duh) and i don't have an album coming
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out called cyberpunk or anything. now i'm just a mailbox. a mailbox with
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opinions.
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did i forget anything?
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ok? ok.
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--margie
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==============
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SIGNAL/NOISE
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Signal/noise: the ratio between the useful information in a given
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environment and the useless nonsense that inevitably accompanies it, even
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threatens to drown it out. It's a useful measure, as long as you don't need
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to reduce it to a number or something. But always remember: one
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net.entity's signal is another's noise. And an environment which one person
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finds objectionably noisy may seem serene to someone else. There are many
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voices out there - many kinds of voices - and many environments that affect
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how those voices appear to other folks across the wires. What follows is a
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dip into the ocean of such voices, presented in such a way as to preserve
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the feel of the particular environment. Much of it was generated on the
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spot in realtime interactive settings, and it has that mix of exciting
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spontenaity and confusion. It's up to you to decide what's signal and
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what's noise.
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__IVAN THE NEWBIE__
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We couldn't have an issue about new voices without talking to someone who
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is actually a new voice (and hasn't been the center of attention since
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minute one). So we went out and found us a basic, real, anonymous newbie,
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and we sat down and asked him how his arrival on the net has affected his
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world. Here's what happened...
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voices: when did you actually get on the net?
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ivan k: actually i was on the net at the end of the school year, just for a
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little bit.
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v: so that would be May?
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i: yeah, 1993
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v: May 1993. first impressions?
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i: well, first impression, first of all i didn't know what to do because i
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was going into it on my own accord and i didn't sign up for it, like, as
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a class, or anything. Nobody had told me... Well actually somebody had
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told me about it, somebody that i knew in New York city said that they had
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been on the internet for a while and they said it was really, a really
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nice system to be on and there were a lot of cool things about it, but i
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really didn't know that much about it. so i work at the radio station and
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i'd heard some things about music bulletin boards and things like that, so
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i asked the head guy if he would let me have a password because at this
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time they weren't giving passwords to the undergrads. So i went over to the
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offices and got a password, then i went in and basically all i did for the
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first three or four weeks was just read off the bulletin boards. i didn't
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feel very...
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v: when you say bulletin boards, you mean usenet?
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i: yes, i still today don't feel comfortable enough to post things on it
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because i don't feel like an expert on anything.
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v: so you feel a pressure being new, and not knowing what's going on exactly?
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i: right, right. and i'm afraid of getting flamed.
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v: which usenet news groups are you talking about?
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i: there is some, just like the heavy metal, the hard rock, the alternative
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music, actually i'm on, there's a devo which i read occasionally
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v: mostly rec.music or alt.music stuph?
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i: alt.music stuff. and then i was in that for a while and then somebody
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turned me on to MOO-ing, and that kept me addicted for a while. and i just
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started to learn how to ftp, download files from other sites and i'm still
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fooling around with the gopher, and trying to figure out what that's all
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about.
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v: most of the MOO-ing has been at Lambda[MOO]?
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i: most of it yeah, Lambda. i'm just getting into the FurryMUCK, even as we
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speak.
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v: so you really have a certain amount of standoffishness about posting
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because of the flames and stuph?
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i: right, right.
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v: it's affected your "voice"?
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i: yeah, yeah, the first thing i noticed about it didn't seem very
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professional but at the same time if somebody said something that somebody
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else thought was stupid, then everybody else would, you know...
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v: let loose?
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i: yeah. i suppose you're going to have that with the internet though.
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v: do you think that the strong voices, which may be the persuasive voices
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there, are really a function of expertise, or are they just the loudest?
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i: yeah, they're loudest. and i don't see a lot of expertise, because i work
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with talking to promoters, and the companies themselves and a lot of them
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don't even know about the internet. which is suprising. and it will be
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interesting to see how long it takes them to catch on to it, before
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they're posting things up, like... i don't know if they would go into
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advertising.
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v: so you've been on almost four months, do you still consider yourself a
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"newbie"?
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i: yeah, because i really don't know that much about programming and all, and
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anything i learn i ask from people i know, yeah, i still consider myself a
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newbie.
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v: does programming expertise have much of anything to do with being, say,
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a competent usenet poster?
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i: are you saying do i feel afraid of the internet because i don't know how?
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v: yeah, are you afraid of the internet because of the language basically?
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i: i feel like i'm only seeing about twenty-five percent of the internet
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and there's like seventy-five percent that i don't know about, but i would
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like to know more about. i kind of feel like i've been asleep for ten or
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fifteen years and i'm just trying to catch up with everything.
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v: and you get kind of thrown into a hole?
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i: right, exactly.
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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
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chuck it all immediately. Sounds kinda funky, huh? True though. And perhaps
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the only way is to "Just Do It." (Sorry Nike) Perhaps one day I will.
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<Voices> Will you stick around? Have your experiences online made you
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>want to continue as part of the Internet community? Are there
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>things you haven't done "out here" that you still want to do?
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I'm always building on my connection software, I need to get a SLIP
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|
connection in order to use most Mac InterNet tools, and have decided to
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|
give UNIX a whirl as well. panix has a tutorial program that I intend to
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|
master one of these days. I also hope to continue using the Net and it's
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users for my "Curry-Curve" ratings tests.
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<Voices> Finally, what are you up to these days, personally or
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>professionally, that you would like to share?
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I have just signed a three year agreement to produce two television shows
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|
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.
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|
The other program will start airing fall 1993, and is entitled "RAVE." I
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|
go to underground "Rave-Parties" in 12 separate major European cities.
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|
RAVE is music-intensive, highlighting house and techno music.
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|
>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...
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=============
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A SHOuT IN THE DARK
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"In a way I feel like a faceless person among a million
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other faceless persons."
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--Ivan K.
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|
Faceless, nameless, helpless.
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|
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?
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|
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|
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.
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|
|
|
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.
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|
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|
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."
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|
|
|
"What's a cyberpunk?"
|
|
"What's William Gibson's email address?
|
|
|
|
Try these on alt.cyberpunk.
|
|
or how about....
|
|
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|
Can somebody send me an ftp site for this stuff?
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|
Try that one out on alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.
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|
|
|
You'll get your initiation all right.
|
|
It's called flaming, look it up.
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|
|
|
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.
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|
[*special thanks to Sigue Sigue Sputnik for that last piece of wisdom]
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|
--NEURO
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|
|
|
==========
|
|
PREVIEWS: _Voices from the Net 1.3_
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|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
"Voices from the Net" will appear on a more-or-less monthly schedule, and
|
|
costs nothing. Subscriptions are available from the editors at:
|
|
|
|
voices-request@andy.bgsu.edu
|
|
|
|
Just send email with the subject "Voices" and the message "subscribe."
|
|
It's easy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
ARCHIVES
|
|
|
|
"Voices from the Net", issues 1.1, 1.1.5 (supplement), and 1.2 are
|
|
available in text-only and hypercard-compatible versions.
|
|
|
|
The archive sites for the text-only version are:
|
|
|
|
aql.gatech.edu /pub/Zines/Voices_from_the_Net
|
|
uglymouse.css.itd.umich.edu /pub/Zines/Voices
|
|
wiretap.spies.com /Library/Zines
|
|
|
|
Hypercard versions are available at:
|
|
|
|
aql.gatech.edu /pub/Zines/Voices_from_the_Net
|
|
sumex-aim.stanford.edu /info-mac/recent
|
|
|
|
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.
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======================================================================
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