Internet: How to USE it!
The use of big words, such as bandwidth, connectivity, and hypertext, goofy words, such as gopher, archie, and veronica, and initials, like FTP, WAIS, and MUD, tend to leave less-experienced users feeling rather inadequate. There's a whole new vocabulary to learn (as if the Polish language wasn't challenging enough!).
The 'Net changes too quickly for someone to develop an accurate, user-friendly manual, but a few brave souls have attempted to help educate those of us without PhDs in computing. One person's efforts stand above the rest.
Superhighway road map
Like most Internet users, Patrick Crispen received his first email account at University. Working nights in a student dorm, with only a university computer to "talk" to, he taught himself how to use the many functions of the Internet as a means of staying awake. He became quite proficient, and soon after won the Internet Hunt, a difficult cyberspace scavenger hunt.
Confident in his abilities and dedicated to helping others, he then decided to offer a course called Roadmap to the Internet.
"Actually," he confessed to me, "the real motivating factor was that I was rapidly approaching [college] graduation, and I could not for the life of me find a job ... anywhere! So I decided that I needed to find some way to make myself more 'marketable.' Fortunately, I was able to make myself more marketable while at the same time doing something that I absolutely loved - teaching people how to use the Internet."
Written in basic English and emailed for free to anyone who wanted to receive it, the workshop would provide one "lesson" per weekday for six weeks on the many capabilities of the 'Net. Complete with quizzes, homework and guest lectures, Crispen expected the course would draw many people. He had no idea.
"Never in my wildest dreams," he later explains, "did I expect that over 62,000 people from 77 countries would sign up for the first three Roadmap workshops." It has been referred to as the "Woodstock of the Internet," and is one of the most talked about, and typed about, subjects on the 'Net. He told me that Central European 'Netters numbered well into the thousands. "In fact, the number of people from Central Europe who participated in Roadmap is about 100 times the number of people from the University of Alabama who participated in the workshop ... and Alabama was the workshop's host!"
As an Internet junkie myself, I was eager to see what all the fuss was about and enrolled in the last Workshop. Each of the Workshop's major topics - Connectivity, Email, Listservers, Telnet, FTP, Gopher, Archie, Usenet, and the World Wide Web - is covered in superb detail, utilizing easy-to-understand examples and always offering the student a homework assignment to practice. The only drawback to the course is its interface - you must either read it on the screen, or better, download each lesson. Depending on your Internet provider, downloading may require you to edit the lesson for easier reading. I, for example, downloaded them into Microsoft Word and gave each a larger and more "readable" font. It took some time, but my eyes thanked me for it!
But I Only Have Email ...
Understanding that many Internet cruisers, particularly those using pay services such as CompuServe or America On-Line (AOL), only have access to email, Crispen tailored his course to be useful to them. He outlines methods, for example, where powerful functions such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and Gopher can be thoroughly utilized through a series of email messages. This can be of great assistance to users in Poland as well, as Telekomunikacja Polska SA continues to charge by-the-minute rates that make some Internet searches rather expensive. Email messages, on the other hand, can usually be written "off-line."
How Do I Get It?
The best way to get "Roadmap to the Internet" is to request a "package" of each of the six week's lessons. To do so, send an email message to LISTSERV@ UA1VM.UA.EDU that says "GET MAP PACKAGE F=MAIL"
You'll receive information on how to easily download either individual lessons or the entire course. The lessons are short enough to be completed daily (less than 30 minutes each), so you can expect to be a "Cyber God" in no time!
So what's next for the Internet's most popular professor?
Sometime this fall he will be offering a similar course on the World Wide Web, which, with all the talk about the Web in the media, we can expect to be equally as popular.
Krotzer (email address: krotz@ inx.pm.waw.pl) is business development manager for Radomska Wytwornia Telefonow-Telefony Polskie SA in Radom.
