Learner drivers on the Information Highway

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 10:14:55 +0100


The computer page in the April 1, 1994, issue of The Independent, a national
paper here in the UK, contains a lengthy article entitled "Drunk in Charge",
by Andrew Brown. The title refers to an item that the author had seen in
soc.risks about the April Fool's joke by John Dvorak in PC Magazine.


However within the article there is an explanation of the differences between
newsgroups and mailing lists that I found amusing, though not necessarily
accurate (he says hurriedly :-):


> ". . . It is the discussion groups for people who would normally shun
> computers that I find most fascinating. The point here is that the Internet
> acts not as a global village but as a virtual city: that is to say a place
> where so many people abound that everyone is bound to find someone who shares
> an interest with them, no matter how obscure.
>
> Medieval numismatists, fly fishermen, fundamentalist Christians interested in
> setting up communities without churches - all can find two or three hundred
> others out there on the net and set up a mailing list. All in fact have done
> so.
>
> The principle is simple. Everyone on the list can send and receive messages
> to everyone else on it by sending a message to a single address, a computer
> known as a "Listserv" which will then distribute them to all other members.
>
> These mailing lists are both more primitive and more sophisticated than the
> discussions on Usenet - the collective name given to discussion groups on the
> Internet - that grew out of them. They are more primitive because they are
> harder to use: there are no dedicated programs for reading them as there are
> for Usenet. They are harder to find, too. A big Usenet service will dump a
> list of 3,000 or more discussions, sorted into topics or "news groups" onto
> your hard disk.
>
> All that sort of information is automatically maintained. Lists of mailing
> lists. on the other hand, are much harder to find. There are some lists, but
> none are complete. There is no central authority or mechanism responsible for
> collating them. This means, however, that anyone who finds their way to a
> mailing list wants to do so. Usenet newsgroups are so easy to reach that all
> the wrong people have arrived already.
>
> Most sensible people have long since given up most of the Usenet newsgroups
> as a desert populated by shreiking Yahoos and egomaniacs. One friend, after a
> couple of days trawling around, remarked that he never wanted to hear another
> opinion from a computer science student in the Midwest about anything ever
> again.
>
> If the Usenet newsgroups are full of students; mailing lists are where the
> faculty hangs out. This ensures that all the bores you meet are
> well-informed. At best, it provides a high standard of interdisciplinary
> discussion. . . ."


(Remember that, in the above, I was quoting somebody else's views! :-)


I send the above quote out to a combined mailing list/newsgroup I frequent
which is suffering a rush of new users - I thought you'd like the reply I
received from Henry Thibault:


> I think we are seeing the beginnings of the Information Highway.  All they
> need
> is a computer and an AOL disk that comes free with a magazine.  No license
> required.  They just drive their semi-tractor-trailor-trucks or coaster wagons
>
> or bean harvesters on at an off ramp, in reverse, and roar around as they
> please, trying first one pedal or switch or lever and then another.  Isn't
> this
> the way EVERYone learns to drive?  If we ask them to read a law or two, or
> even
> an owner's manual, they wave a stiff middle finger at the screen on its way to
>
> the delete key.  When they get in the deep yogurt, we are supposed to come to
> the rescue.


Cheers


Brian






Dept. of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk   PHONE = +44 91 222 7923
FAX = +44 91 222 8232