Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!evans-ron
From: evans-ron@CS.Yale.EDU (Ron Warren Evans)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: FidoNet and digital anarchism
Message-ID: <43879@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 23 Nov 88 03:52:15 GMT
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: evans-ron@CS.Yale.EDU (Ron Warren Evans)
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept, New Haven CT  06520-2158
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GENERAL:
I've been following the discussion of revolutions and Fidonet.  For years now
I have had access to both BITNET and the InterNet on my school computers, so
I never was too concerned with Fidonet, but now I am leaving school.  I never
was able to figure out how to send mail on Fido.  I also see that Fidonet is
connected to InterNet now (when I first learned this, my brain exploded), and
I see that some FidoNet users are receiving netnews.

TO FIDONET READNEWS USERS:
What I want to know is: is netnews free on your system, or a for-pay arrangement
?  Is it easy to access?  Where can I find a similar system near the Boston
area?  I may be using PC Express (or whatever that service is called where one
can access distant computers for $25/mo), so distance may not be a problem,
but it would be nice to have a local account.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
I really am interested in FidoNet,
and not just for personal reasons (i.e. cheap netnews), although this is a
factor.  I have been especially fascinated with Fido since I read about it
in OMNI a couple of years ago...... I might even like to start my own Fido node
someday, and I have friends who feel the same way. Digital anarchism is where
it's at. In fact, I understand the creator of FidoNet was an anarchist.

BTW:
Does anyone know anything about the network facility the Green party was trying
to start a few years ago?

AN ANECDOTE:
I have a friend who is advisor to a group of SubGenii at a large university. He
got them their own house (as a "special interest group"), and wired them up
with their own LAN.  Soon, their LAN will be linked to the campus network, my
friend tells me, and then the full-force info barrage begins........
I would like to see special-interest groups have their own media environments,
as the SubGenii I mentioned did.  I understand that FidoNet users can have
conferences; can these be called by any user, or only by sysops?  Moreover,
can these conferences extend across the net, or are they only local?
Some of the most valuable conversations I have ever had have occurred on
Relay (a BITNET conferencing system), and I would like others to have that
opportunity too.


PEACE...........................................................................

Ron Warren Evans
a.k.a. His Pontification the Irrev. St. Ron "Good" Evans the Second Draft, Wi.D.
       Head Saint of the ParadoX OrthodoX Church
       Ko-Direktor of the Greater Erisian Ekumenikal Kouncil (GEEK)
       Fourfather [sic] of the Y Nomic Club
evans-ron@cs.yale.edu or evaronw@YALEVM.BITNET
TinFoil on Relay; Evan de Potiron in the Society for Creative Anachronism