The Online World Part 10

RelayNet has EDUCATION. NewsNet offers the newsletters EDUCATION DAILY, and the h.e.l.lER REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY.

Many online services (including schools and universities) offer students accredited courses by modem. Connected Education at the New School for Social Research in the United States is one example, as is the University of Phoenix in Arizona. (Ask in CompuServe's Education Forum for more information.) The EDUPAGE newsletter is a twice-weekly summary of news items on information technology, provided by a consortium of colleges and universities "seeking to transform education through the use of information technology." Compact and informative. I like it.

To subscribe, send a note to [email protected] with your name, inst.i.tution name and email address. (EDUPAGE is also available for Gopher, WAIS and anonymous FTP access on EDUCOM's host machine, educom.edu .) INFOBITS (at [email protected]) is a monthly service reporting from a number of information and instruction technology sources.

The Internet Resource Directory for Educators is available by anonymous FTP from tcet.unt.edu in the pub/telecomputing-info/IRD subdirectory. File names include:

IRD-telnet-sites.txt (226KB ASCII text) IRD-ftp-archives.txt ( 73KB) IRD-listservs.txt (201KB) IRD-infusion-ideas.txt (202KB)

Example: KIDLINK ---------------- Many parents and teachers regard the online world as a learning opportunity for their kids. Some of them turn to KIDLINK, a global service for children between 10 - 15 years of age. The service is operated by a gra.s.sroots network of volunteers.

The objective is to get as many children as possible involved in a global dialog.

Partic.i.p.ation is free. Before joining the discussion, however, each child must respond to the following four questions:

1. Who am I?

2. What do I want to be when I grow up?

3. How do I want the world to be better when I grow up?

4. What can I do Now to make this come true?

The kids can write in any language. Most answers are sent through the Internet to a large online database in North America. Anyone with an email connection to the Internet can search this database at will.

When they have submitted their responses, they are invited to 'meet' the others in several KIDCAFEs. The cafes are split up by language. Here, they can discuss anything from pop music to how it is to live in other countries.

KIDLINK grew from an idea in 1990 to over 10,000 partic.i.p.ating children in 50 countries by May 1993.

Schools all over the globe are integrating KIDLINK with their cla.s.ses in languages, geography, history, environment, art, etc.

To the kid partic.i.p.ant, KIDCAFE may be the beginning of a personal network of international friends.

For more information, send mail to [email protected] with the following command in the TEXT of your message:

GET KIDLINK GENERAL

Your personal network --------------------- Network is a word with many meanings. It can be a system set up to transport data from one computer to another. It can be an online service with many conferences, and a friendly connection between people (like in "old boys' network"). Here, we use it in the latter meaning of the word.

We use our personal networks more than most of us think of.

We have a chain of people that we call on to ask for advice, help, and who we invite to partic.i.p.ate in projects or parties. When they ask us for a.s.sistance, we lend a hand.

The online world has some interesting characteristics. One is that most partic.i.p.ants in online conferences already have received so much help from others that they feel obliged to pay back. They do this by helping others.

Those who help, know that helping others will be rewarded. The reward, however, may not come directly from the persons that they help. They contributions help maintain and develop the online world as one giant personal network.

A typical example: I wanted to buy a 425 megabyte hard disk for my Tos.h.i.+ba 5100 personal computer. I discover the existence of such a drive, when a user told about his experiences in CompuServe's Tos.h.i.+ba Forum. Before placing an order, I wrote to check if he was still satisfied with the disk.

The happy user did more than reply. He told about other sellers and offered to help out with return s.h.i.+pment of my computer when done. He made it clear that he had no financial interest in the companies selling the upgrade. We had no previous contact with each other.

The online world is full of similar examples. The list of what people do to help others is very, very long.

In most conferences and forums you get help, just like that.

There is always someone prepared to help.

Still, the best long range strategy to build chances of getting help when you need it, is to be visually present in conferences, that matter to you. 'Being visually present' means that you should contribute in the discussions and help others as much as you can.

The p o s i t i v e contributors get a lot of friends and a disproportional amount of help from others.

That is all it takes to build a personal network. One day you may need it. It will give you an incredible advantage. I have seen people get jobs, partners and clients through such contacts. The online world is full of opportunities.

Watch your words ---------------- Written communications are deprived of the body language and tone of voice that convey so much in face-to-face meetings and even in telephone conversations. Therefore, it makes sense to work much harder to build in humor, sarcasm, or disagreement and avoid your words come across as stupidity, rudeness, or aggressiveness.

One way of defusing misunderstanding is to include cues as to your emotional state. One popular technique is to use keyboard symbols like :-). We call these symbols emoticons.

What :-) means? Tilt your head to the left and look again. Yes, it's a smiling face.

Here are some other examples to challenge your imagination: ;-) (Winking Smiley), :-( (Sad), 8-) (User wears gla.s.ses), :-o (Shocked or surprised), and :-> (Hey hey).

A bracketed is shorthand for grin, and means grinning, ducking, and running. Some people prefer to write their emotional state in full text, like in these two examples: *grin*

and *smile*.

Do not misunderstand. You still should not allow yourself to write the most appallingly insulting things to other people, and then try to shrug it off with a .

Watch your words. They are so easy to store on a hard disk.

Religion and philosophy ----------------------- CompuServe's Religion Forum (GO RELIGION) has many message sections with a.s.sociated file libraries. You can get into serious discussion about topics ranging from Christianity, Judaism, Eastern Religions, Islam, Interfaith Dialog, Limbo, Pagan/Occult, to Religion and Science, Liturgical Churches, Mormonism, Ethics and Values, and more. You may also want to check out the New Age Forum.

Usenet's offerings include these:

soc.culture.jewish Jewish culture & religion.

soc.religion.christian Christianity and related topics.

soc.religion.eastern Discussions of Eastern religions.

soc.religion.islam Discussions of the Islamic faith.

talk.religion.misc Religious, ethical, & moral implications.

talk.religion.newage Esoteric and minority religions & philosophies.

alt.pagan Discussions about paganism & religion.

alt.religion.computers People who believe computing is "real life."

clari.news.religion Religion, religious leaders, televangelists.

The BITNET/Internet arena has The Islamic Information & News Net on MUSLIMS (available through [email protected]). ISLAM-L (on [email protected]) is a non-sectarian forum for discussion, debate, and the exchange of information by students and scholars of the history of Islam.

BUDDHA-L (on [email protected]) provides a means for those interested in Buddhist Studies to exchange information and views. BUDDHIST (on [email protected]) is for non- academic discussions.

BAPTIST ([email protected]) is the Open Baptist Discussion List. THEOLOGY (contact [email protected]) is a mailing list dedicated to the intellectual discussion of religion.

In its self-presentation, it says:

Intellectual is stressed as opposed to the "personal," the inspirational, or evangelistic. This does not mean one cannot evangelize, but rather that partic.i.p.ants should persuade rather than brow-beat or attack those they disagree with. Arguments are inevitable, but they ultimately should resolve into mutual understanding or at least a truce.

Pagan (Contact: [email protected]) is set up to discuss the religions and philosophies of paganism. BELIEF-L (on [email protected]) is designed to be a forum where personal ideologies can be discussed, examined, and a.n.a.lyzed.

The discussion list [email protected] is where you debate the philosophy of communication. [email protected] is the Philosophy Discussion Forum.

Several sacred texts and primary texts of religious interest are available by anonymous FTP or LISTSERV. The Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Koran (also spelled Quran) are available at many sites and in a variety of file formats.

The Bible (King James Version) is available as bible10.zip and bible10.txt via FTP to mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.201.12) in the /extext/etext92/ directory.

M.H. Shakir's translation of the Koran is available as 114 individual ASCII text chapters via FTP to quake.think.com (192.31.181.1) in the /pub/etext/koran/ directory.

A short file containing quotes from the Koran is available via LISTSERV from [email protected] as PAKISTAN AL_QURAN.

A collection of Sanskrit texts is available via FTP to ftp.bcc.ac.uk in the /pub/users/ucgadkw/indology/ directory.

You may use the Archie service (see Appendix 4) to find other religious texts that are also available through the Internet. On FidoNet, check out JVArcServ.

Job-hunting by modem -------------------- Unemployment is a global problem, and losing a job is often a bad experience. If this ever should happen to you, consider checking out the BITNET discussion list [email protected] - "So, you've been laidoff?"

Maybe you already have a job, but are constantly searching for something better.

There are many forums and conferences devoted to help you get a new job. FidoNet has the JOBS conference, for those not in a hurry, and JOBS-NOW (Job & Employment offerings/listings) for those who have no more time to wait.

On Bergen By Byte, it is called 'Job_market', and on ILINK CAREER. In many countries there are local bulletin boards operated by public employment agencies.

On Televerket's Datatorg (Norway), you can browse jobs from the following menu (translated):

VACANT JOBS

Select desired profession Number 01 Technical, natural sciences ( 182) 02 Education, etc. ( 601) 03 Media,art ( 58) 04 Medicine, health care, etc. ( 951) 05 Social care ( 307) 06 Adm.,management, organization ( 348) 07 Finance,computers ( 100) 08 Secretarial, office work ( 138) 09 Sale,purchasing, advertising ( 576) 10 Agriculture,forestry,fis.h.i.+ng ( 56) 11 Oil and gas, mining ( 38) 12 Transport,communication ( 68) 13 Workshop,fine mechanics,electro( 126) 14 craft,building and construction( 93) 15 Industry,ware-house,mechan. ( 68) 16 Hotel,restaurant,domestic work ( 133) 17 Service,surveillance,safety ( 170)

If your potential employers have an email address, you can send dozens of job resumes - while going for a cup of coffee!

WORK-AT-HOME on FidoNet is for those planning to start their own business ("Take this job and shove it! I'll work at home!") CompuServe has the Working-From-Home Forum under the sysops.h.i.+p of online gurus Paul and Sarah Edwards. Its file library contains back issues of the electronic magazine "Making It on Your Own."

GEnie has the Home Office Small Business forum (HOSB).

Home based business opportunities may exist within areas such as desktop publis.h.i.+ng, desktop video, high-tech equipment repair, import and export management, and professional practice management.

Learn from others in forums or conferences on related topics.

The good news is that many organizations are having problems finding qualified candidates for their vacant positions, and that some of them are turning to The Online World for help. One of them did it like this (from an online announcement):

Because it is difficult to locate qualified candidates for positions in special libraries and information centers, and to a.s.sist special librarians and information specialists to locate positions, the student chapter of the Special Libraries a.s.sociation at Indiana University has formed a LISTSERV, SLAJOB, in connection with the Indiana Center for Database Systems.

The LISTSERV, which is available on both the Internet and Bitnet, will help special libraries and information centers in the sciences, industry, the arts and within public and academic libraries to have a central location for announcing special library and information science positions.

The LISTSERV is available to individuals or organizations that have an Internet or Bitnet network connection. For those on the network, subscribe by sending an email message to: