MY WORLD: [my
favorite things][writings & musings]
CYBERGRRL WEBSTATION: [planet cybergrrl] [cybergrrl village] [webgrrls] [femina] [womenzone]
MY WORLD: [my
favorite things][writings & musings]
CYBERGRRL WEBSTATION: [planet cybergrrl] [cybergrrl village] [webgrrls] [femina] [womenzone]
as published in the Resident Paper, NYC - written 1995
"Configure this." Those two words could mean the same thing as "Perform this intricate brain surgery blindfolded" to the non-techy type. How does one get easy online access? Commercial online services could be the answer.
What is a commercial online service? Well, you've probably heard the names of the biggies: Prodigy, America Online, Compuserve, Delphi, Genie, eWorld and soon the Microsoft Network. You may have heard of some smaller services: ECHO (East Coast Hangout), the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) or Women's Wire (the national service with a 95% female population). But what are they?
Generally, commercial online services are not the Internet and are not a part of the Internet. They are their own separate computer environments. You subscribe to their service and as a member, you gain access to their computers. When you "log on" to America Online (AOL) or Prodigy, you are actually logging into AOL's computer in Virginia or Prodigy's computer in upstate New York. You usually won't see long distance charges for most major cities because the services will provide you with a local access number.
Online services usually provide you with their software to enter their computer systems which is sometimes a specially designed graphical interface that makes finding your way around as simple as pointing and clicking on icons. In my personal opinion, AOL is the easiest to find your way around. Each service, however, is continuously improving their systems for ease of use.
Each service provides content to make their service unique and enticing to you, the user. For example, on AOL you can find the New York Times, Women's Day, Time magazine, and Business Week (just to name a few) while on Compuserve you can access People magazine and Newsweek and they'll soon offer New York Magazine, Premiere and Automobile.
Online services also provide forums for discussions in both live formats and bulletin board (also called messaging or posting board) formats. Topics range from health, family, relationships, sports, career, finance, hobbies, travel, you name it. Chances are you will find someone somewhere with similar interests who is willing to exchange information, advice and opinions.
An example of how the bulletin board format works is you could go to the Fitness board in Elle magazine's forum on AOL and access the folder called "Personal Training". There you can read messages from other AOL users asking questions about fitness, read the responses from a fitness trainer, and post your own questions. The postings remain on the board for other users to read.
Live chats, however, happen in "real time" meaning "right now". Services offer "chat rooms" which you can enter and "talk" to other people who are at their computers at the same time you are at yours. The talking is actually typing - you do not hear voices or see the people. You see their name followed by the typed message that they are sending. You can then type a reply for them to see. Live chats can be public where many people participate at once and see each other's conversations or they can be private between individuals.
Online services offer Internet tools or limited ways of accessing information on the vast number of databases around the world. For example, AOL offers FTP, Gopher, Usenet Newsgroups and Internet Mailing lists. Future columns will explain Internet tools in more depth. ECHO and the WELL do offer full Internet access and access to the World Wide Web (Prodigy is the only biggie service that let's you onto the Web). Both are text-based, however, without the easy point-and-click access.
So dip your toe into the warm, friendly spaces on commercial online services, the perfect place to learn how to go online. When you feel brave enough, check into direct Internet access and really explore the world!
For those on the Web, point your browsers to this URL:
http://www.odci.govYes folks, this is the CIA Web Homepage - fascinating stuff! For those of you without Web access, stay tuned to the next column - we will tell you how to get onto the Web!