Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!gatech!hubcap
From: hubcap@hubcap.UUCP (Mike Marshall)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: use the news
Message-ID: <1193@hubcap.UUCP>
Date: 24 Mar 88 14:54:12 GMT
Organization: Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Lines: 26

Not long ago I polled this group for ideas on how to go about making the 
general academic populace aware of the net. Quite a few people sent me 
(or posted) thoughtful replys. Several people had similar (and sound) ideas:
distribute short informative fliers and/or run a student newspaper add 
highlighting groups like misc.jobs.offered to aid in imparting that 
all-important initial interest in the net (if they read the news once 
they'll be hooked!).

One important point that several people mentioned was that the learning
curve for many new users would be too steep. I agree it would be steep.
While I can imagine a non computer-literate person stumbling though vnews 
or readnews, when they cranked up postnews and got dumped into vi they might
get stuck :-). Actually, I think the relative difficulty new users
might have getting started could be a blessing in disguise... only the
most serious folks would progress to the point where they could successfully
navigate vi, and post articles.

Interestingly enough, one person sent me mail, begging me not to try to 
"spread the word". I guess he thought I was trying to flood the net with
a bunch of bozos wit out no netiquette. My point is that there are a lot
of non-bozos in this community that could benefit from the net (or benefit
the net) if they knew about it.

Thanks for all the replies...

-Mike Marshall       hubcap@hubcap.clemson.edu        ...!hubcap!hubcap