THEME III - SUSTAINING COMMUNITY; THE USE AND IMPACT OF FREENETS Thursday, August 19 10:30-11:15 am FOR BUSINESS AND PROFIT; COMMERCIAL USES Michael Strangelove, Publisher, The Internet Business Journal, Ottawa Michael Strangelove outlined the impact that commercial use has had on the Internet, and discussed the role that FreeNets might play in supporting local businesses. The Internet has exploded in size since commercial use began in earnest in the late 1980s. Contrary to the popular opinion that the Internet is primarily populated by the academic community, Mr. Strangelove notes that currently, approximately 51% of the hosts on the net represent industry, rather than academia. He predicts that there will be around 50 million commercial users connected before 1998. FreeNets have not traditionally allowed commercial entities to use the services of the FreeNet to make money. However, Mr. Strangelove suggests that they might consider allowing commercial establishments to provide services, if they serve to benefit the community as a whole. THE NCF FEDERAL ELECTION PROJECT Richard P. Taylor, Board member, National Capital FreeNet Richard Taylor described the NCF's attempt to implement a set of online services to offer an improved communications channel between the candidates and the voters in the next Federal election. Previously, one main avenue for a candidate to present his or her platform to the public (and to defend that platform), was via All Candidates Meetings. These meetings offered the opportunity for the public to ask questions of the candidates, and gave the candidates an open forum for debate. These meetings have a few problems that the FreeNet may be able to solve, by using existing services. First of all, the NCF now offers an area in which each candidate can assemble a database of various information. These might include a basic introduction and background for the candidate, a summary of that candidate's platform, and records of speeches or press releases that a candidate wants to offer for public viewing. This allows users to browse the online information at his or her leisure. Also, this would allow candidates the chance to confirm in writing the stance they take on various issues. Also, the NCF has public newsgroups, or discussion forums, set up to allow dialogue between candidates and users. One of the main problems with the all candidates meetings has to do with the fact that the candidate must supply an answer to a question instantly, without a moment's pause for reflection. In a newsgroup, a candidate has a chance to think about a question before offering an answer. Also, due to the impersonal nature of the newsgroup, the ideas expressed by the candidate may be more clearly understood, without misinterpretation caused by the mannerisms or speaking ability of the candidate. The candidate can assert his or her viewpoints strongly regardless of how "telegenic" he or she is. So far, response to the services has been disappointing. The candidates have not taken full advantage of it, though effort has been made to make them fully aware of it. This effort continues. ACCESS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Sam Fulton, City of Ottawa Sam Fulton offered a look at the FreeNet from the perspective of a blind user. Textual telecommunications are an invaluable resource to the blind, as computers can read text aloud as it is received. This allows for a powerful public forum for these people. Approximately 18% of people in the Ottawa area are disabled. This number is expected to increase over the coming years, as the population ages, so it is imperative to keep these people in mind as the Freenet is developed. There are already a large number of dial-in bulletin board systems catering especially to the disabled already in place in Canada. In Ottawa, the FreeNet is a popular topic of discussion on these BBSs. The FreeNet stands to capture a large audience of people from this community, if it learns to adapt to their needs. There are a number of resources available over the Internet that FreeNets could make widely available. "Etexts" -- electronic documents which would allow visually impaired users access to a wide range of reading material. This body of electronic text is growing very quickly. Mr. Fulton offered a few suggestions to keep in mind while developing FreeNets, with respect to disabled users: -- Great care should be taken when designing the menu structure. It is very important to make navigating the FreeNet universe as simple as possible. -- Many people advocate the use of a "modern" graphical user interface to enhance usability of the FreeNet. These interfaces cannot be used by visually impaired users [or by many people with other disabilities]. If such a system is considered, alternate interfaces must be made available. Similarly, computers which read to the visually impaired read EVERY character they see. This becomes tedious in files where people have tried to create visual effects with ASCII characters. A series of dashes (-----) or slashes (/////) takes a long time to b read out character by character. Please try to avoid doing this. -- Many organizations catering to the disabled community (such as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind) are unaware of the services provided by FreeNets. It is important to make these organizations familiar with the resources available. -- FreeNet administrators may be tempted to create special areas for the disabled community, and to steer disabled users only towards these areas. Mr. Fulton stresses that effort must be made to offer disabled users access to ALL areas of the FreeNet, rather than just those specially designed for them. If a FreeNet is truly going to endeavour to be an open communication forum for all people, it must encourage access to all services for all people.