by Sam Harsh, University of Colorado May, 1995
A group of adults sits at computer terminals in a room at the University of Colorado's Computing and Network Services (CNS) building at 3645 Marine St. in Boulder. Using a device that projects the images from his computer onto a large screen at the fron t of the room, Bob Pazden begins to take the group on a tour of the Boulder Community Network. He first asks if anyone is uncomfortable with computers. One woman raises her hand and says she has never used a compu ter mouse before. "This is the first time I've petted a mouse," she says.
As the students try to follow along, Pazden shows them how to use the mouse to click on a phrase of blue high-lighted and underlined text -- "Help, I'm new to all this" -- taking them to the Help Cent er where they can find more information on how to access and use the network. Next, Pazden clicks on "Arts Center" to produce information on the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, then brings up th e Boulder County Menu, Shopping and Services Guide. During the presentation, Steve Kaminski darts from student to student, answering questions for the less experienced.
The Boulder Community Network (BCN) is an on-line computer service created in the Spring of 1994 as a forum for a variety of public and private information providers. Boulder county residents have access to that information through public computer termi nals, or "kiosks," located in various community centers, in public libraries and throughout the CU campus.
One of BCN's goals is to help put the growing world of on-line information into the hands of all residents, especially those who would not otherwise have access to computers and the knowledge to use them. Census and other data show that only about one-t hird of US homes have a personal computer, and most of those are owned by well-educated, high-income people. Furthermore, numerous surveys concerning the multitude of computer on-line services show users to be predominantly male and working in high-tech and computer-related fields. Though the majority of its users appear to conform to these findings, BCN has achieved some degree of success in putting technology and the vast world of on-line information into the hands of more than this high-income, techn ologically-literate elite. Seniors, middle school students, low-income families and many others are going on-line with BCN to find information about employment services, local government, the weather, movie and entertainment listings, restaurants and muc h more.
"What I get out of all of this is a familiarity with the equipment," said 70-year-old Art Rifkin, who first discovered BCN at the Boulder Senior Center.
BCN is actually a site on the Internet's World Wide Web (WWW or the Web) and is accessible to anyone in the world with the appropriate software and Internet connection.
The Internet, according to "The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog," grew out of a U.S. Defense Department network designed to withstand partial destruction -- presumably of the nuclear variety -- and still continue to function. The idea is that in formation can find its way from any source to any destination computer on the network. In the beginning, the Internet was used primarily by an elite group of government employees, scientists, engineers and university students and staff.
More recently, the World Wide Web was developed as a means of standardizing and simplifying use of the Internet, and incorporating a way for sound, pictures and even video to be sent between networked computers. The Web makes use of a concept called Hyp ertext, where information is linked together by means of text and graphics that can be selected by clicking with the computer mouse. Software applications, such as Lynx, Mosaic and Netscape, developed for navigating the Web, are known commonly as Web "br owsers."
For instance, the BCN main index, or "home" page, has a list of centers to be chosen that appear on Mosaic and Netscape as colored, highlighted text. Using the computer mouse to point and click on "Me dia Center," for example, causes the media center page to appear complete with more choices to click on, such as the CU student-produced, on-line Campus Press, which, in turn, has other links to other documents. In this way, users of the BCN can point and click to navigate or "surf" around and find information. And surfing the BCN, like any Web site, can take you off the BCN computer and across the Internet to places like the White House home page or Hotwired, an on-line version of Wired magazine.
But Web surfing is consigned to those who have access to a networked computer at school or work, or have the means to buy an appropriate personal computer for the home. Home users also need an Internet account provided by one of the many commercial serv ices, appropriate browser software and a device, called a modem, for connecting a computer to the network via the phone lines. The expenses add up to the point where only higher income households, businesses and universities tend to have the means to get connected.
Data from 1989, gathered by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, reported that 45.6 percent of households with an annual income of $75,000 or more owned computers, but only 4.8 percent of households with an annual income of $15,000 or less owned them. A 1994 survey by the Software Publishers Association found that half of all computer-owning households in the United States had incomes of $50,000 or more and a quarter had incomes of $75,000 or more.
"Depending on whose lie you believe, the penetration of PCs into homes is in the zone between 27 and 32 percent," said Dennis Dube, a publisher at Boulder's Apple Electronic Media Lab. "One out of three, at best, homes have even equipment. And of those PCs, only a fraction even have modems. So the real number of homes that have the capability of having accounts is probably in the neighborhood of 12 to 14 percent of households." Other surveys have indicated that computer ownership is mostly for the we althy.
A recent survey of World Wide Web users, conducted by the Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, found that only 28 percent of Web users p ay for their access personally. Most have access through a university or business. Statistics show that most BCN use occurs on weekdays during working hours and is, therefore, probably not used much by people at home.
Despite these findings, BCN is trying to improve availability and access to computers and the Internet. It is one of a number of community networks and "Free-Nets" being installed across the country. Most have no access charges and many, like BCN, have public terminals or "kiosks" available in libraries and community centers.
Funding for these networks comes from a variety of sources including government grants, donations and use of university resources. According to Ken Klingenstein, a member of the BCN executive board and director of Computing and Network Services (CNS) at CU, the network was initially funded by the : Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP), part of the National Teleco mmunications Infrastructure Administration (NTIA) which, in turn, is part of the Department of Commerce. Out of a 1994 TIIAP budget of $24 million, BCN received a $249,000 grant allocated for an 18-month period endin g March 30, 1996. The network also relies on university computers, office space and staff, as well as resources from other public and private agencies.
"The important thing to note is that there are no real financial models for how to support community networks," Klingenstein said. The BCN executive board is exploring a number of alternatives to continue financing the network, including commercial adve rtising, when the initial TIIAP grant money runs out, but has made no final decisions.
Boulder County residents without computers can use numerous public kiosks to access BCN and the WWW at large. According to a BCN page called "Accessing BCN," there are 11 public kiosks in the downto wn Boulder Public Library, including one by the espresso bar on the bridge overlooking Boulder Creek. There are also dozens of kiosks on the CU campus and Boulder Valley School District schools. There are kiosks in the Longmont, Louisville and Broomfiel d public libraries, in the Boulder Senior Center and the Woodlands low-income family housing project. In addition, BCN is working on providing a "modem pool" that would allow home computer owners to dial directly into the network without needing an expen sive account from one of the commercial Internet providers.
BCN also offers frequent classes at CNS, where new users can learn from an instructor how to navigate BCN and the World Wide Web in general.
The public kiosks seem to be getting used. Art Rifkin was first introduced to BCN via the public kiosk at the Boulder senior center. He now volunteers for the network three times a week, gleaning senior-related information for BCN from the World Wide W eb. He called BCN and the Web a wonderful outlet. "I got interested in this because I'm very interested in trying to get into the Internet as I get more sedentary," Rifkin said. "Ultimately, I hope to get an account and I can work from my home." He i s particularly excited to get e-mail so he can communicate via computer with his grandchildren.
Rifkin is part of a growing number of seniors who are discovering the new world of computers and on-line services. Surveys have shown that Americans 55 and older are the fastest growing group of personal computer owners. One study, by a research and co nsulting firm called Link Resources, said the percentage of home computer owners over 55 jumped from 10 percent in 1988 to 14.2 percent in 1993. In addition, many of the commercial on-line services offer senior-related news, information and discussion gr oups, such as Prodigy's "born in the twenties," part of its Seniors' Bulletin Board.
But Rifkin, who retired six years ago from Grumman Aerospace, was already computer-literate. BCN is not having much luck attracting seniors who don't already understand the technology.
Diane Fells, a BCN training volunteer, says there aren't any success stories to tell yet of seniors embracing the new technology at the Boulder Senior Center kiosk. "A lot of them aren't interested," she said. "Most people my age have no need to invest i n a computer."
BCN is also available on a kiosk at the Woodlands housing complex at 27th, and Mapleton, in Boulder. Woodlands is run by Project Self-Sufficiency (PSS), a service, according to its BC N page, that "provides and brokers a complete package of services designed to assist low-income families in becoming self-sufficient." One of these services is computer skills training on a Macintosh or one of the four IBM-compatible computers at Woodlan ds.
Woodlands residents, as part of the program, must attend college. According to volunteer trainer Steve Kaminski, residents use the computers to do homework and don't have much time for BCN. "It's not that it hasn't worked," he said. "We haven't got tha t many people trained yet."
Kaminski plans to train more people and then create an employment page on BCN that would provide links to some of the Web's career-related information. "There turns out to be a lot of information on employment opportunities but within technical fields," he said.
Larby Sellaoni is a Woodlands resident who teaches math and takes courses at the University of Colorado's Denver campus. He has had some training on BCN but, like other residents, is too busy with other commitments to find time to use the network. This is not for lack of wanting, however. "I'm interested in doing more about it," he said.
Sellaoni, who has been in the U.S. for 20 years, is Algerian by birth and wants to use the Web to stay abreast of international news. "I definitely have to use it because I'm an international person," he said. He feels that local papers don't supply ad equate news coverage. "That's not enough. In this world you have to know more."
Probably the most spectacular use of BCN is occurring at several Boulder Valley Schools where students have been publishing Vocal Point, a multimedia on-line magazine lauded by its creator s to be the only one of its kind in the world produced by middle-school students.
Scott Dixon teaches computer classes at Centennial Middle School, including the publications class where the February, 1995, Vocal Point, an issue on poverty, was produced. "Historically, publications classes were taught by an English teacher who didn't know technology," Dixon said. The class was changed to a computer elective taught by Dixon. "My specialty is the electronic aspect of desktop publishing."
He helped the magazine go from text and graphics to multimedia by including videos after he heard that a group from a Japanese foreign student placement service wanted to come and see students working on Vocal Point. They asked if the publication was mu ltimedia. Dixon decided he would make it so by the time they arrived. He delegated the responsibilities of learning the required software to different students.
By the time the visitors came in October 1994, the class had produced its multimedia magazine. Since then, the class has also been visited by representatives from the Wall Street Journal, Denver Post and Jones Cable Network, which used Vocal Point stude nts as stars in "Computer Kids," a series of videos about how kids can use computers.
Justin Basch, a seventh grader at Centennial, oversaw the production of February's poverty issue, which included a video of the Boulder homeless shelter. Basch looks every bit a 12-year-old, until his fingers begin to fly over the keyboard. "We create a Microsoft Word document and save it as RTF," he said, noting a step in the method of creating a Vocal Point page.
Basch is part of another growing segment of computer users: kids. Unlike their parents, who did not grow up with the technology, many children have access to computers in school, at home and at computer camps and classes designed to give them a head sta rt in the world of technology.
The 1994 Link Resources study reported that families were the largest and fastest growing market segment for personal computers, representing 54 percent of computer owners, a leap of 17 percent from the previous year. Other studies confirm that househol ds with children are more likely to have computers than households without children
In schools, one study showed that 77.7 percent of U.S. schools had computers for an average of 63 students per machine in 1984 and 1985. In 1992 and 1993, 97 percent of schools had computers for an average of 12 students per computer. But some fear an imbalance in school and home access to computers is simply perpetuating the problem of information haves vs. have-nots for the future.
Basch, who starred in a "Computer Kids" video explaining computer repair, is also unsure about which direction his future will take. "I might want to get into journalism or I might want to get into computer science stuff," he said. "I might want to be a doctor."
Another education problem that Dixon's classes are helping to solve concerns girls and technology. Numerous studies have shown that girls face a lot of obstacles in the computer and technology fields as they grow up. First they watch their brothers and fathers spend more time at home with the computer, often using them to play violent and aggressive games. Later, when they reach puberty, girls may decide, in their search for an identity, that computers are for boys only. At least one study showed tha t teachers tend to give more of their time to boys in computer classes. In high school, girls tend to have lower SAT scores in math and science than boys and, by college, many women have dropped out of the field altogether.
Centennial seems to be defying these trends. On cold days, says Dixon, when many boys are outside, the girls pack the computer lab. A recent cool day in March put the tally on the lab's sign-up sheet at 19 girls to five boys. "The publications class ha s mostly girls in it, about two-thirds girls," Dixon said.
Christine Jochin is a 13-year-old, eighth grade Centennial student who is an aid in one of Dixon's classes and co-president of the computer club. At home she has access to three computers -- two IBM compatibles and a Macintosh -- which she uses to do he r homework and play games. "Actually, Mr. Dixon is very helpful in making sure that girls are very welcome to try things that aren't normally allowed in his lab (such as games) and lets girls try them, so that they get interested in technology," she said by e-mail. "I personally think that's great, but he didn't really have to encourage me, because I grew up in a technological world when I was little (my dad is/was an engineer, now he does stuff with telecommunications, same sort of thing), and math and science are some of my favorite classes, and I really believe that women should excel in these areas, more so than they are now."
Jochin prefaces her e-mail messages with a smattering of favorite quotes, including this one by Charlotte Whitton: "Whatever women do they must do it twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult."
Vocal Point is one of several electronic "publications," many with print counterparts, available for reading on BCN. Statistics show, however that most people are not using the network to read articles from these publications. Instead, the most popular destinations on BCN contain short lists or schedules of information, such as local employment services, movie theaters and times, weather information, and upcoming concerts. Another popular destination allows users to send e-mail to a variety of people including BCN staff, local government representatives and even President Clinton.
BCN use illustrates what other studies have shown. The computer medium is better suited for searching for and acquiring short, useful bits of information, and for communicating with others. However, for reading longer stories and articles, such as thos e found in newspapers and magazines, nothing beats good old-fashioned ink-on-paper. Again, the access issue plays a role. Computers and on-line services are expensive. Newspapers are cheap and sometimes free.
Despite these facts, the newspaper industry, reeling from a general decline in readership, has perceived formidable competition in the form of the Internet and commercial on-line services. Many newspapers have responded by producing on-line counterparts to their print products. For instance, the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph has an on-line version, called GTOnline, available on the World Wide Web to paid subscribers who are given an access password.
"We think there are a number of people in the high-tech area who have dropped out of newspapers and we think [GTOnline] will bring them back," said Phil Witherow, director of research for the Gazette Telegraph.
But many, particularly, older Americans who grew up with and trust the print media are reluctant to get their news from a computer screen. According to Roger Fidler of Knight-Ridder's Boulder-based Information Design Laboratory, a screen, for most, is not as pleasurable to read as a newspaper. This, Fidler said, is because computer screen technology is based on that of television where there is a barely perceptible but consta nt flicker and poor resolution that makes reading difficult. "Most people will tell you they don't want to read a video screen," Fidler said.
His lab is exploring technology for an electronic tablet or "flat-panel," much like Apple's Newton, that would combine the convenience and readability of a print newspaper with all the functions of a computer. The tablet screen will have higher resoluti on and a constant image that doesn't require refreshing, Fidler said. Early prototypes of the tablet won't be available until the end of the decade. Fidler said this tablet will be simpler to use than the Web. "We have to do things in a way that is qui ckly understandable and doesn't require a manual," he said.
Though newspapers are said to be better-suited to long articles, one study showed most people don't read most of them anyway. The Poynter Institute for Media Studies conducted a 1991 study of newspaper reading habits by using a special camera mounted on the heads of readers that could track their eye movements as they read a newspaper. The results, published in a book called "Eyes on the News," found that only 25 percent of the text in newspapers was being looked at or "processed," compared with 80 per cent of the artwork, 75 percent of the photos, 56 percent of the headlines, 52 percent of the advertising, 31 percent of the news briefs and 29 percent of the photo cutlines.
BCN also has photos and "artwork" in its on-line galleries, but they are not popular destinations probably because photos take a long time to come up on the screen.
The Poynter Institute findings show that most readers might be ready for reading from a screen after all. Fidler notes that the general lack of newspaper readership shows that the information rich and information poor have been around for years. "There' s always been a gap there. Let's face it, a lot of people don't read newspapers," he said.
While most newspapers are confined to a small circulation area, BCN has at least one advantage in being accessible by anyone in the world with the appropriate Internet connection and WWW software. In fact, the term "community network" is somewhat contra dictory to the term "World Wide Web," which may be redefining the concept of community. BCN has a discussion group page that, currently, remains in a test area until BCN staff can decide what to do with it. The page works much like an on-line Bulletin Board System (BBS), where users can post messages to different groups on different topics that can be read by everyone else. Here are two examples of posts to the group:
From: Mike Graham p17813@email.mot.com
Subject: Hello from exBoulder resident
Friday, January 20, 1995 6:01:34 PM
I left Boulder in 1967 after graduating form CU. I now live in Arizona and I'm interesting [sic] in how things look in Boulder now.
From: Renee H. Kraft rkraft.uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu
Subject: employment
Monday, February 13, 1995 4:29:37 PM
I am relocating to Boulder, Colorado in June 1995 and am in need of help to search employment on the Internet.
The BCN community includes former and future Boulder County residents. George Dillard is "a middle-aged ex-long-hair type of guy with a family of six" who lives on a farm in Missouri and works in a public library where, among other things, he does Inte rnet training. He uses BCN to look at upcoming Boulder events before visiting town or sometimes just to reminisce. "If I'm feeling especially homesick, I'll take a virtual tour of Boulder, perusing the map and the Pearl Street Galleries, but also check out the lunch offerings at Nancy's Restaurant, one of my old-time favorites," he said by e-mail.
Not all users are so gracious about BCN. Leonard Weed, director of a local publishing firm, finds BCN frustrating. "For the most part I don't wander into the BCN anymore because it's totally inoperational," he said. Weed, who gets his Internet access a t work and home through Colorado SuperNet, said he would like to see better interactive capabilities like the discussion group, which, he said, was too hard to find. "We should be on the leading edge of this st uff," he said of Boulder.
The Internet, the World Wide Web and BCN are all likely to gain in popularity as the years pass. Many say the Internet is the current paradigm for the long-awaited "Information Superhighway." Right now it is still a new concept to people like Bob Colem an, a 70-year-old retired cabinet maker from Boulder, whose family has lived in the area since the late 1800s. Until about three years ago, Coleman had no computer experience and, like many new computer users, is afraid he might break something. "I know so little about it that I'm probably dangerous," he said. Coleman has used kiosks in CU's Computing and Network Services (CNS) building and on the CU campus to find local government-related information. "It seems a little quicker to get into that than to call the city. You get a better idea about what's going on," he said.
Coleman, who was born in Westminster, has been part of the community all his life. "I've watched it all grow," he said. Perhaps Coleman and other Boulder Community Network users are witnessing the beginning of a new "virtual" community as well.