Reference sheet prepared by Jolene M. Morris, District Technology Director, Grand Co. School District
When Vice-president Al Gore was a senator, he sponsored a bill to create NREN (the National Research and Education Network) which would have provided Internet access to all K-12 students. The idea of NREN was to give the same research and information tools to students that were used by businesses and the government. It would have been used to conduct actual research rather than simulate research in education. Teachers could use it to share concepts, ideas, and methodologies with other teachers. Students could use it to communicate with other students and experts in various fields.
The complete text of this bill including editorial comments about its fate is available on the Gopher at the University of Minnesota. Connect to the Gopher at the following address:
gopher.micro.umn.edu
and work through the menus as follows:
Libraries
Electronic Books
By Title
NREN
Commercial Internet Exchange
Because the Internet was begun by the military and expanded to research universities, it has been largely inaccesible to commercial use. Those private companies which got early access to the Internet did so illegally. There is now a group of private companies called the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) which provides legal access to commercial interests. When the Internet was opened up to commercial entities, Internet access and specialized client/server software grew rapidly. The CIX has now won Internet access for any individual or company as long as those individuals/companies pay a fair share of Internet costs.
National Information Infrastructure
President Bill Clinton has furthered the concept of a nationwide information network. He has made a proposal to expand the Internet to every school and public library. This proposal is called the National Information Infrastructure (NII).
The Future of the Internet
While there is no one central body making rules for and governing the Internet, the Internet will continue to grow and provide a service.
An interesting article about the social and political implications of the Internet may be obtained by ftp or via Gopher:
Anonymous ftp:
Address: ftp.spies.com
Path: /Library/Cyber/cyber.net
Gopher:
Name: Internet Wiretap
Address: wiretap.spies.com
Menu Path: Wiretap Online Library
Cyberspace
Political & Social Impl.
If you are interested in more information and technical proposals for the future of the Internet, send e-mail:
Address: Internet-drafts@
nri.reston.va.us
Body: help
Other Internet Resources
Gopher Mail is a guide to Gopher resources. This is especially useful for people with e-mail access but no Gopher access.
Gopher:
Address: gopher.nips.ac.jp
Choose: About GopherMail
Internet Engineering contains information about the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Anonymous ftp:
Address: wuarchive.wustl.edu
Path: /doc/ietf/
Internet Growth Statistics contains information about the growth of the Internet as well as discussion of other global networks including Bitnet, uucp, and Fidonet.
Anonymous ftp:
Address: tic.com
Path: /matrix/growth/internet/
Gopher:
Address: nysernet.org
Path: Special Collections: Internet
Growth info. abt. the Internet
Internet Society Gopher contains information about this Society which is related to the technical side of the Internet.
Gopher:
Address: ietf.cnri.reston.va.us
Internet Worm was a program written by Robert Morris Jr. (no relation to the author) and released on the evening of November 2, 1988. This program duplicated itself, got out of hand, and much of the Internet had to be shut down. This site contains information and reports about the Internet Worm.
Anonymous ftp:
Address: nic.funet.fi
Path: /pub/doc/security/worm/
InterNIC Information Services is a database of resources on the Internet.
Telnet:
Address: ds.internic.net
Address: rs.internic.net
IP Address Resolver will help you find the IP address of an Internet site and send you an e-mail message with the address.
Mail:
Address: dns@grasp.insa-lyon.fr
Body: site sitename
Net Happenings is a mailing list of information about activities on the Internet.
Listserv mailing list:
List: net-happenings@is.internic.net
Subscribe: listserv@is.internic.net
People on the Internet is an attempt to form an online white pages to people on the Internet. It includes access to Knowbot, Netfind, PSI White Pages, UK searches, Whois, and X.500 searches.
Gopher:
Address: yaleinfo.yale.edu
Path: The Internet
People on the Internet
