By Michael Hagerty, President, MBUG

  Much has been written recently about the "high speed network
  (HSN)". The Vice President (and even the President) have endorsed
  the idea of a government-sponsored development effort to put this
  concept on-line.

  While this idea does have a lot of support in the computing
  community, there are detractors.  The detractors include privacy
  advocates, those who are opposed to the expense, and those who
  want the entire network set up by private industry and run like
  the phone company was or cable TV franchises are now.  That each
  of these groups will be lobbying hard is an indication of how
  important the issued is viewed.

  Since politicians are, by and large, wholely ignorant of advances
  in computer technology while you, our subscribers, are (or are
  becoming) more knowledgable, I want to point out where we are now
  vis-a-vis public data networks.  I hope that an educated
  electorate would be able to educate our leaders so that wise
  choices can be made.

  In the last decade or so, the Department of Defense, through its
  research arm, funded the development of Internet.  The purpose of
  this venture was to permit researchers at universities and
  government facilities to interact via an electronic mail system.
  Internet has been, I believe, much more successful than was
  originally anticipated. That universities and government
  researchers would be connected was expected.  What was not
  anticipated was that Internet would take on a life of its own,
  independent of it original funders, and would connect companies,
  foreign governments and individuals from every walk of life.

  Let me digress by pointing out that Internet is really the system
  of interconnection, more or less the hardware and the supporting
  network software, and that Internet provides the mechanism of
  addresses, etc.  One can, if someone's Internet address is known,
  send a message directly to that individual, regardless of where
  they may be.  As to how, I prefer John Campbell's observation
  that, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable
  from magic."  To a large number of people, this is magic. Over
  the years, "gateways" have been introduced which connect Internet
  to other networks.  It is possible, therefore, to send a message
  on one network to an individual on yet another network, just as
  you might call someone who has a phone serviced by Japan
  Telephone & Telegraph from a phone serviced by PacBell.  The HSN
  is rather like Internet on steroids, much much faster and
  reaching many many more sites.

  Just having the network is rather like having a cable TV system
  with no stations or carried programs.  Kinda like a computer with
  no software...  It is the software which is "secret sauce" to
  make this HSN valuable.  Most BBSs have message conferences, in
  which users are encouraged to engage in public discussion on
  particular topics.  Many BBSs subscribe to networks (such as
  RIME, FidoNet or Ilink) so that a larger audience can participate
  in these discussions.  A fairly large number of shareware authors
  take advantage of these networks to support their products in
  specialized "conferences" or "newsgroups".

  Commercial vendors (CompuServe, America On-line or Prodigy) do
  this same thing and may view the interconnection of networks into
  the HSN as detrimental to their continuing success.  Each of
  these services is selling a public newspaper to which all of the
  posters represent their (paying) reporters.  They may exercise
  control over content and have in the past become embroiled in
  vitriolic debates over perceived censorship.

  BBSs and the commercial vendors are beginning to take notice of
  Internet and its "newsgroups".  There are some 10 million people
  connected via Internet and the Usenet newsgroups carried on it
  cover over 2,000 different subjects, including subjects as
  diverse as field hockey, aviation, beer-making, English usage,
  and virtually any computer, technical or scientific area of
  endeavor. Nitelog provides access to these newsgroups via
  Internet, as well as access to many newsgroups from other nets of
  interest to its subscribers.

  Where does this lead us?  I see that in the very near future, we
  will have access to a specialized magazine, delivered to us
  electronically which will include only articles of particular
  interest to its reader. These articles will be drawn from a vast
  array of different sources and will include "books", multi-media
  presentations and, yes, raging debate.  This will be the
  customized newspaper dreamt of in science fiction.  We will also
  have access to materials on virtually any subject of interest to
  the individual.

  In our daily paper would be study materials, supplementary
  information, comics, entertainment, our personal mail, reports on
  our bank account and bills due and, of course, junk mail.  The
  possibilities are only limited by the human imagination.  That
  there will be a network to which we can connect is a certainty;
  the questions remaining to be answered concern the speed,
  security, privacy, access fees and content.