Stalling/Free-Net Study/4A
Free-Net Software
Features in Common
[Note, 12/16/96: All references to "First Class" should read
"FirstClass," without a space.]
"The user interface should make the system easy to use and be
free of surprises, and the system should do what users expect it to do."
(Schuler, p.255)
"One can't just say "Technology 'A' is better than technology
'B' for accomplishing this or that. You can have a superior technology
which doesn't 'achieve critical mass', because it's not perceived as
friendly in the same way, or because it develops a different set of
'regulars', or doesn't acquire the same mix of norms or ideals." (Kutz,
Jun. 23)
Free-Nets are not only a brand of community network; they are more
generally known as Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes). There are more than a
hundred BBS software packages on the market, and each one is slightly
different from -- and, of course, slightly incompatible with -- all the
others.
Each of the three Free-Nets I studied uses a different software
package. While the construction of a Free-Net is theoretically secondary
in importance to the content it offers, the software does determine the
Free-Net's user-interface and thereby influences what types of people use
the system and what type of content they provide. More importantly,
though, it determines what the Free-Net can do and what it does well.
"Each technology has properties -- affordances -- that make
it easier to do some activities, harder to do others: The easier ones get
done, the harder ones neglected. ... each technology poses a mind-set, a
way of thinking about it and the activities to which it is relevant, a
mind-set that soon pervades those touched by it, often unwillingly."
(Norman)
That being said, there are a number of features which all three software
packages share, even though they may call them by different names.
menus
When connecting to any of the three systems with a text-only interface, a
user is confronted with a hierarchy of "menus". In keeping with the
original Free-Net concept, information is represented in these menus as
divided between "buildings" -- for example, the School House, the
Government Building, or the Arts Building. However, while the Cleveland
Free-Net places these buildings directly on the main menu, the two newer
systems hide them inside another menu. For the full menu structure of
each Free-Net, please see the appendices.
electronic mail
All three systems are based rather fundamentally on electronic mail; it is
arguably their most popular feature. All three systems allow e-mail
messages to be sent anywhere on the Internet ... provided they contain
only text. First Class and NovaServer allow messages to contain formatted
text (varying colors, fonts, styles, sizes) and attached files, but these
enhancements are lost when the messages are sent to a site that runs
different software.
message forums
Message forums are known by a variety of names, depending on the whim of
the company that wrote the software. On the Cleveland Free-Net, they are
called "bulletin boards," since anyone may "post" a message which anyone
else may then read. To continue the analogy, some bulletin boards are
kept in separate rooms which only some people may enter, and still other
'boards are sealed in locked glass cabinets so that everyone may read but
only a few people can post messages. "Moderated" boards are behind glass,
but they have suggestion boxes beside them -- that is, anyone may
contribute a message, but only the "moderator" can make these messages
readable.
Despite the convenience of the bulletin-board analogy, in NovaServer
these constructions are called message forums, and because I am most
familiar with NovaServer, for the remainder of this paper I will refer to
them as message forums.
Besides supporting their own local message forums, all three software
packages provide access to selected "UseNet newsgroups," which are very
similar to local forums but are shared throughout the Internet.
Furthermore, many First Class and NovaServer systems have joined together
to share message forums, using their proprietary protocols (OneNet and
InfoLink, respectively) to include formatted text and attached files in
messages.
The degree to which message forums are distinguished from electronic
mailboxes varies between the three systems; in FreePort and First Class
one may post to a message forum by simply sending an e-mail message to the
name of the forum.
file libraries
All three systems also allow users to contribute ("upload") non-text files
such as images so that other users may then copy ("download") them to
their own personal computers. Again, the name for these structures may
vary, but since NovaServer calls them file libraries I will continue to do
so in this paper. FreePort and NovaServer treat file libraries as
fundamentally different from message forums and e-mail, but First Class
uses the same structure for all three: to contribute a file to a library,
one simply attaches the file to a mail message and sends it to the name of
the library.
interactive chat
A favorite feature of BBSes, particularly among new users, is the
capability for interactive chat sessions, which allow two or more users to
communicate immediately with each other as if they were sitting in the
same room. As each user finishes typing a line of text and presses Enter,
that line appears on the other users' screens. To my knowledge all three
systems use their own proprietary protocols for exchanging this
information, rather than the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) standard.
Table of Contents
Backward to Greater Cleveland, Ohio, Calhoun County, Michigan, or Worth County, Georgia
Forward to FreePort, FirstClass, or NovaServer
Bibliography