Just who is this guy anyway?

                     The semi official bio of

                          Robert Parson


Robert Parson is author of The Wired Future series and the 
continuing column The Electronic Identity in International Online 
Magazine.

Mr. Parson is a Broadcast Journalist who has worked at several 
Radio and TV stations throughout the U.S. during his 15 year 
career.  He is currently the News Director/Operations Manager for 
the Awareness News Network, a network that provides news and 
information to radio stations throughout Arkansas.

Robert has won writing awards, has been honored by Chambers of 
Commerce and was an applicant for the Journalist in Space Program 
before the Challenger disaster (the JIS program remains 
suspended).  In 1981, he produced a series of reports about the 
breakup of the AT&T system in the United States.

Robert has also worked in Market Research and Financial Planning.  
Information Management and Distribution has always been a major 
factor in his career.  International Online Magazine is one facet 
of that life's work.

His entry into computers was slow at first.  "I make my living 
writing, so I decided I needed a computer.  But after doing some 
serious thinking about it, I realized that at that time all I 
really needed was a dedicated word processor."

The word processor he bought, the Canon Cat, was quite unique.  It 
had an unusual, but easy to use interface.  Inexplicably, it also 
had an internal modem.  That was his first introduction to 
computer communications.  Although he could read only ASCII files, 
he realized the potential of telecommunications.

Although he no longer uses the Cat, it still holds a special 
fascination.  "It was the only machine I've ever used that was 
truly user friendly."

Robert started writing for International Online Magazine when it 
was still known as Arkansas Bytes.  "I read an article that 
bothered me and started writing a response."  When the response 
shot up to 10k in size and he still wasn't finished, he rewrote, 
edited and broke it into five sections.  The end result was The 
Wired Future series.  Publisher/Editor Michael Gray offered Robert 
a position as a Consulting Editor with the magazine, which he 
accepted, the outgrowth of which is The Electronic Identity Column.

Robert says he tries to explain information technology in layman's 
terms.  "People often buy something and even if they know how it 
works, they may not fully understand it or how it affects their 
lives."

Robert is married with two children and lives in Fort Smith, AR.  
He is, in his words, "moderately active" in the Fort Smith BBS 
community, can be found on the International Online Echo and 
subscribes to the national online service GEnie.  He says he 
doesn't use pseudonyms on BBSs because "I have nothing to hide.  I 
am my comments."

E-Mail addresses:
I/O echo      Robert Parson
GEnie         R.PARSON1
Can be found regularly on Fort Smith, AR BBSs and on Arkansas 
Valley BBS, Russellville, AR using the name Robert Parson.