Using FaxModems and E-Mail as Tools of Social Change (page 2 of 3)
By Carl Davidson
Networking for Democracy

While these benefits of E-mail are immediate and apparent, the early obstacle to its wider use was the relative difficulty in making the connection between the two computers over the phone lines. To someone with a little knowledge about baud rates, serial ports and communications software, it was easy to do if there was someone with the same knowledge at the computer on the other end at the same time, ready to "synchronize your watches," so to speak. But since this is rarely the case in our kind of low budget, non- profit offices, the potential for using E-mail often remained dormant, even if the equipment was available.

Today this obstacle is easily overcome. The solution is to subscribe to an on-line computer networking and conferencing service such as PeaceNet.

What exactly is PeaceNet? Start by thinking of it as the electronic equivalent of renting a mailbox at your local post office. But unlike the post office, your E-mail box at PeaceNet is "on-line." First, that means you don't have to go there to check or pick up your mail; you dial up your box with your phone and computer. If there's something in the box, you can simply read it on your computer screen or "capture" and "download" it to the disk drive on your computer. Second, being "on-line" usually means being available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unlike Snail-mail PO Boxes, you can get into your E-mail box at any time, day or night, as often as you like, without leaving your office.

Who can put mail into your PeaceNet E-mail box? First, any of the 10,000 or so progressive activists who are also Peacenet subscribers. From within PeaceNet, it's easy and quick. They can send any computer file to my E-mail address, which, in my case, is "cdavidson." If someone isn't a PeaceNet subscriber, but uses another network, such as the InterNet, which links faculty and students at almost all universities, it can still be done but it may take a few hours. An InterNet user can still reach me by using a longer address, again in my case, "cdavidson@igc.org." This tells the InterNet to connect itself to PeaceNet through a "gateway" called "igc.org" as soon as it can, and then put the mail in my box.

The bottom line of all this for us: you no longer need two computer nerds in two offices working at the same time to link up two computers over the phone lines, synchronizing their ability to exchange data, each and every time you want to send stuff back and forth between them. Instead, you only have to set up the office computer's ability to call into PeaceNet once; in doing so, you automate the procedure down to a few simple keystroke combinations. Thereafter, just about anyone can can use the computer to call in--the lingo is "logging on"--and then pickup their E-mail or send E-mail to someone in another office.

The person you're sending to doesn't have to be "logged on" to PeaceNet at the time or even in their office; the mail will stay in their box until they check it and take it out. If it's an urgent matter, then you simply call them up on the old-style voice phone and tell them to check their E-mail box as soon as they can for the stuff you sent them.

If all this sounds great, hang on to your hat. PeaceNet is much more than a glorified electronic postal system; while important, E-mail is only a minor part of its services. More >>