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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!udel!burdvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!felix!dhw68k!david
From: david@dhw68k.cts.com (David H. Wolfskill)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin
Subject: Re: use the news
Message-ID: <5665@dhw68k.cts.com>
Date: 7 Mar 88 14:14:05 GMT
References: <1063@hubcap.UUCP>
Reply-To: david@dhw68k.cts.com (David H. Wolfskill)
Organization: Wolfskill residence; Anaheim, CA (USA)
Lines: 60
Keywords: non computer types

In article <1063@hubcap.UUCP> hubcap@hubcap.UUCP (Mike Marshall) writes:
>....
>What kind of novel ideas does anyone have about getting people who aren't 
>already interested in unix/usenet/computers to realize what a powerful
>resource usenet is?  I am not trying to drum up business/traffic on
>usenet because I don't have anything better to do, I just think that it is
>a shame that so many people here are missing out on such an important 
>tool, just because they don't normally use computers and don't realize
>what usenet is.

Agreed.  In fact, access to USENET was one of the big concerns I had
when I was deciding what kind of machine to buy for myself -- one reason
I avoided Intel architectures.  (This was in late '84....)

>So... have any of you tackled the problem of informing a "general population"
>about the power of usenet?

Well, now that I have this wonderful resource -- and rather more
computing power than I am likely to need all to myself -- I give away
logins.

In particular, I have made the offer quite explicit to a couple of
groups: the local chapter of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
and my colleagues at work.

The folks in OCACM have not been anywhere near as interested as I
rather thought they would.  Part of this seems to be a case of failure
to get "a round TUIT", but part also seems to be a lack of familiarity
with UNIX (combined with a certain impatience with learning curves).

The folks at work are a rather diverse group.  The ones with the most
technical expertise seem to be the ones that use USENET the most.  (One
of them is logged in on the other MODEM as I write this, and is
undoubtedly running "rn"....)  Some of those who are reasonably
familiar with how to use the system don't seem to have/make time to use
it.  At least one person (a "non-computer type") from work seems to be
overwhelmed by the whole thing.

The case of the technical folks at work is kind of curious -- they
(including my manager, frank@dhw68k.cts.com) seem to have become quite
"taken" with USENET... to the point that they want me to find some way
to link the IBM box at work (running MVS -- and no asynchronous ports
available on the 3725) to the net.

Well, I've rambled a lot....  I guess the only point I have (other than
pleading for help with the concerns of the immediately preceding
paragraph) is that there is a perception of a very steep learning curve
for making use of USENET -- and whether the curve is, in fact, steep or
is not, it's the *perception* that matters... at first, anyway.

Note that this is the case even with "computer types" -- the limited
experience I have had with "non-computer types" indicates that (for the
most part), the learning curve is perceived as even steeper.

Any other experiences...?

david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill
uucp: ...{trwrb,hplabs}!felix!dhw68k!david	InterNet: david@dhw68k.cts.com