SV-PAL OFFERS INTERNET ACCESS FOR $20 PER *YEAR*!! [getting cheaper than a video rental a month .. d

[David Farber <>]

SV-PAL OFFERS INTERNET ACCESS FOR $20 PER *YEAR*!!
        All the talk and promotion for the information highway has
companies and investment groups scrambling to determine their
part in this new age for communications.  Much of the attention is
focused on how the network will be organized, architected and
constructed.  But more important is who will it serve, what is its
benefits and how can it be used.  Answers to these issues are more
likely to come from the efforts of groups like SV-PAL, the Silicon
Valley - Public Access Link, when it opens its doors in late February.
        SV-PAL is committed to increasing the numbers of people in
Silicon Valley that access and benefit from on-line information.
SV-PAL's three fold objectives:
o  Provide broader on-line access to local information,
o  Provide on-line access to global information through the  Internet,
 and
o  Educate people about on-line resources,
goes to the heart of determining the purposes and values for the
coming age of communications.  Because SV-PAL is so committed to
expanding the access to on-line information beyond the present base
of users, a comprehensive menuing interface was developed to simplify
the user interface.  One of its most amazing attributes is how the
resources of the Internet are made available without technical
education on UNIX shell commands for users.
        Preparation for SV-PAL's general roll out at the end of
February has been progressing for about a year.  Over 100 users
have been in a Beta Test since October of 1993.  By March SV-
PAL plans to make available to individuals and households full
local information and Internet access for a twenty dollar annual
fee.  Special arrangements for independent accounts for minors
will also be available.  There are no time based usage charges
although individual sessions will be limited to one hour of connect
time in order to provide equity of access.
        Local information will include items like city council
agendas, schedules for cultural attractions, schedules for youth
activities and sports programs as well as information of a more
commercial nature.  Later, SV-PAL expects to offer a geographical
data base that allows for graphically locating events, specific
activity routes and any other graphical information.
        Global information is provided through access to the Internet:
o  Electronic Mail to the 20+ million Internet subscribers around
      the world,
o  Telnet connections to remote hosts,
o  FTP, WWW and Gopher access to remote data bases,
o  News net access to the thousands of news topics carried on the
      Internet.
Other  features may be added in the future.
        Even though its doors are not yet officially open, SV-PAL
became instrumental to at least one part of the world's largest
information resource (the Internet) when it offered the first Gopher
service to the new California Legislative Data Base in January just
days after the data became available to the Internet.  In its first
week of existence almost 1000 inquiries were made through this
Gopher.  Most of these were from people at other Internet hosts
pointing their Gophers at SV-PAL's Gopher for the information.
        Just as significant as the actual on-line services are the
educational programs designed to make novice users more
effective in approaching on-line services.  For a nominal fee
anyone can attend a two hour class that describes how to use the
on-line facility including the Internet.  In preparation for general
availability, SV-PAL held six classes in January and plans to
conduct seven in February.  A full schedule is planned through the
spring and early summer.
        Beyond classes, SV-PAL plans to locate public access
terminals with some limitations on the functions provided at
various public locations around the south bay.  At one of these
terminals people can experience accessing data remotely as well as
getting information about what is happening in the Silicon Valley.
        Although inspired by the success of freenets, SV-PAL is a
significantly new type of on-line experiment.  SV-PAL is designed
to be self sustaining.  Other freenets have been spectacularly
successful.  But, typically they depend upon a large institutional or
corporate sponsor.  SV-PAL is planned to be self sustaining.
Chartered as a 501(c)(3) non profit corporation, the organization
benefits those who choose to donate equipment and in fact
depends upon equipment donations.  The volunteer staff of over
30 people come from Silicon Valley's most respected companies.
Systems procedures comparable to the procedures at the volunteers
host companies have been developed to ensure SV-PAL's smooth
operation.  The beta test has been operating from Monta Vista
High School in Cupertino.  (The school Vice-President Gore
visited in January.)  A second site, networked with the first, will be
brought up at San Jose State University, in February.  A third site
is planned in the next few months.
        Organizations with information to provide are encouraged to
contact SV-PAL.  Information providers are grouped into those
with less than one Megabyte of information, one to ten megabytes,
and those with more than ten megabytes.  Information may be
loaded onto SV-PAL's hosts as text files or may be built into a
postgres database to allow users to search through the information.
Special programs allow information providers with large and
dynamic information to maintain the data on their own machines
and be contacted on-demand when users make specific requests.
Very nominal annual fees comparable to the user fee are charged.
        For those seeking to learn what the coming age of on-line
communications and information is really about, you might want
to call SV-PAL at 415/967-2873.

---
> From selmeier () svpal org Sun Feb  6 22:17:10 1994
 I am the marketing director for SV-PAL.  You may direct any questions
back to me.  Thank you.
--Bill Selmeier


===