Internet may be damaged by ignorance of users
« >U<3
If you think about it. the Inter
nut is an amazing creation. I'd
«v«n tall it one of mankind's
greatest achievements in the last
30 years
Unfortunately, there are few of
mankind's achievement* that
another segment of mankind
couldn't screw up, given the
chain e Sure enough, just as the
internet is on its way to becom
ing the most globally useful tool
since electro ity. there are people
who an* working hard to under
mine and destroy its usefulness
for everyone else
Not to worry. I'm not going to
outline an elaborate conspiracy
theory involving the White
House, the KGB (it still exists,
you know) and your dog. Sparky
The kind of damage being done
to the Internet is presumably
unintentional. And I'm not talk
ing about kicking out transmis
sion lines or dropping routing
computers I'm talking about
good, old-fashioned ignorance
You ms*, when the Internet was
created (it was called ARPANet
then), it was built for a scientif
ic. community of research and
educational institutions its pur
pose was to provide a means for
Many people art
very concerned
about the government
taking over the
Internet They should
be concerned ab<tut
corporations
scientific collaboration among
researchers and to allow sharing
of computer resource* acrnas long
distances.
In the earlier days of the Inter
net there was a significant
knowledge base required to be
obit* to make use of its rwsoun es
Only government and educa
tional researchers even had
access to such let hnologv Any
fool off the street couldn't just
stroll into a computer lab and
start chatting with bis aunt in
Duluth t Inless, of course, he was
also in Duluth and his aunt hap
pened to be in the same lab My
point is that the American pub
lic had little knowledge and even
less use of the Internet
These davs. just mention the
word “Internet" at a party and
you'll appear suave and world
ly (or maybe that has something
to do with the sort of parties I go
toi it s the biggest and hippest
thing since radio Everyone and
his grandmother has an e-mail
address of some kind, and the
term "information superhigh
way ' has 1mm ome perhaps our
most-abused national cliche
These things all spell success for
the internet
So what's the problem, you
ask' Well, it begins with the fact
that mut h of the flourishing pop
ularity of all things net like has
to do with the recent develop
ment of online services like
America Online (A()t.). Prodigy,
CompuServe, etc \( )1 for exam
pie. provides an easy-to-use inter
fa< e to internet mail and news,
allowing users to access them
with extreme ease That's not the
problem
The problem is that users of
these services suffer from Stand
ing-On-The-.Shoulders Of-Ciants
Syndrome (or words to that
eff«s t) Before services like AOl.
began offering ,u cess to new s
groups to its users, there was a
i ertain level of knowledge that
was nw essary for anyone to read
and post news In the prot ess of
learning how to a< i ess the nec
essary tools (logging into a main
frame, navigating its operating
system, configuring and using the
newsreader. etc ), a certain gen
eral understanding of how the
Internet operated was generally
gained, as well as a respect that
can only l*> acquired through that
effort of learning
1 don't mean to pit k on AOt.;
they certainly take enough grief
from the Intemtit i ommumty Hut
an inordinately large percentage
of jh»sts from AOl. users are innp
propriate. insulting, ignorant or
just plain unintelligible. There
are certain behavioral codes for
posting on new s groups, of w hit h
AOl. users probably just aren't
aware, blit which they consis
tentlv break Many AOl. users
possess neither the hat kgmund
nor the at t|uireil sense of rvsjKin
stbility to post intelligently on the
Internet This is because AOl
allows (hem the privilege of news
access without the responsibili
ty of learning how to got there
One of tin* Internet ’s greatest
strengths is its often, sfirnwlmg
art Intei lure This is the reason
than are no authoritative num
bers for the population of the
Internet or the number of hosts
u ithuf it There is no c eiilral i oui
mantl station to count or t ontrol
sut h statistu s
This is one reason the Internet
is so apfmaling to Himnwn 111! ser
vice providers They mil unleash
thousands of uninitiated users
onto thi’ esisting services of the
Intermit and pay no more than
the cost of connection, just like
any other mat hine
As if AOL hadn't caused
enough wasted bandwidth with
useless news posts alone, it has
plans to provide World Wide
Web sen ices soon Imagine thou
sands of AOl. users cruising
around the Web simultaneous)!.
sucking gigabytes of images
through the Internet's already
twigged down pathways
Many people are very con
i omed about the government tak
ing over the Internet They should
Im coni erned about corporations
Soon the research interests that
have funded the Internet for so
long will no longer be willing to
pay for the unwashed heathen
flooding the networks And when
a company like AOl. owns the
tim Maine ot the Internet, do you
think they'll let you use it for
free? Don't count on it
/os/iiio (>/son is thr Kmerald s
U*hnalt%v rnhnnnist tfyrni hnw
any romputrr rrlatrd qurstions
yon would likr lorn to answer, r
mail him at odeumregon orv
gun edu
HOUSING
Continued from Page 1A
replacement of this unsafe housing
Those in favor of saving the complex,
however, say otherwise.
"We've won round one and we're
going to persevere." said Daniel Stutter,
the coalition's attorney. "A lot of people
said this would he over a long time ago
and we’ve hung in there. We have had
tremendous support from the communi
ty and we aren't going away."
Stotter stud he believes Friday's ruling
by the board could send the decision as
to whether the University had met the
pre-application requirements for issuing
a demolition permit back to the huge no
City Council. He also said the stay that
the board put on Amazon to halt all
demolition at the site is still in effect
until Childs files the new report.
Although University officials claim
they can proceed. Eyster said the demo
lition will not occur until the matter is
resolved.
The University’s plans to demolish
Amazon have been at a standstill since
the board issued a stay March 2H forbid
ding all demolition at the site until the
coalition's appeal could (hi addressed at
a hearing on April 27.
It has not been announced how long
Childs has to write the new findings
under the request of the board or when
they will lx* released.
Both sides said Friday it is also
undear as to what Childs will propose in
the new Findings, but even if they do
require the City Council to look at the
coalition's appeal to the demolition |>er
mit again, University offii iaIs are confi
dent
"If it does have to go back, this is still
so easy to comply with," fa ster said 'it
would just he another verification that
their efforts are obstructive and the only
purpose they serve is delay.”
The coalition is hoping, however, that
the findings will provide a i ham e fur the
two sides to work together to reach "a
win-win solution.”
“We think we can find common
ground like we did in moving the St
Vincent de Paul buildings." Stutter said
"it is this kind of compromise we look
forward to fur the rest of the complex
Four, two-story buildings from the
complex were transported to a city
owned site at 200 K 19th Avenue by St
Vincent de Paul officials early Saturday
morning.
As it stands now. only two buildings
at the Amazon site have been demol
ished as part of the University's plan to
replace Amazon with a new. ^HO-unit
complex in two phases
Phase one involves demolishing and
rebuilding the buildings that have been
vacant since Fall 1994 The rebuilt units
are expected to be ready for occupancy
by fall term I99f>
WORK
Continued from Page 1A
Smith Mint the trend of more students
working more hours will continue,
mostly Ins guw of rising tuition
An nrding to hdmond Vignoul. diret
tor of the University's financial aid
office, undergraduate tuition in the
1003-94 st hool year for residents was
$2.01(1 For nonresidents it was $9,985.
In 1995-90, the estimated undergradu
ate tuition for residents is $3,387, and
for nonresidents it is projected to he
$ 11,09 I
Vignoul said that financial aid has
also increased to offset rising tuition.
However, many students said that high
tuition and a high cost of living in the
campus area has put them in an
uncomfortable position
A 22-year-old Environmental Science
major at the University, who wished to
remain anonymous, said he was in
financial straits when he turned to
dealing drugs after losing his job lost
year
"I did it to pay the hills," he said. "I
was dead broke It s not easy though I
usually sell marijuana and hallui mo
gens. hut it s hard to make money off
pot m this town."
He said he does not sell drugs any
more, hul would turn to it again if ho
could not find any other source of
income
It is realty hard to find a job in this
town that works with a class s< hodule."
he said "At least with dealing I ( an
make my own hours
Jennifer, .1 20 year-old University stu
dent who asked to lie identified by her
first name only, also found herself
broke and unuhlo to find a job last year
when she was a freshman
She did not want to (all her parents
and ask for money She thought they
would criticize her for not Ixnng able to
manage her finam es
So. she gathered up her courage and
went down to the laigene Plasma Cor
poration. located at 1071 Olive St . to
donate plasma
"It was kind of scary the first time."
she said. "But they are very nice and it
only took about an hour "
Jennifer rtx eived $2(1 on her first visit
and $15 on each of die four visits site
made after that Although Jennifer
admits to being endwrrassed Jiy Jier vis
its to donate plasma, Kathie Dickie,
reception supervisor at die center, said
die procedures are completely safe and
1 fiat tint negative stigma around donat
ing is unfair Dickie said students come
by regularly to donate.
Ev'en tf f-here was such a -f-hlng
as a sandwich school, we
prob ab ly wouldVe b een draff-ed
early and gone pro anyway.
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