On 30 July 1999, "William X. Walsh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Friday, July 30, 1999, 1:06:05 PM, Richard J. Sexton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wro
>te:
>
>
>> There's a handful of these products - Esther is invested in
>> one, but for my money the best one is activeworlds.com.
>
>But we need a solution that works now, and for the most people,
>without cost, and none of those solutions provide for this except for
>an IRC like solution.
>
Seconded. IRC offers the most flexibility for the most people at the
least cost, and has been "fireproofed" in the field for years. If the
solution *requires* (not offers as an alternative) Java, Javascript,
ActiveX, a particular OS, a particular interface/client, or a
particular point/method of access, you've just eliminated a certain
number of people.
For all it's faults (which are mainly faults found in the people using
the software, not the software itself), IRC minimizes all of those.
As for avatar-based software: yes, it re-introduces some of the
physical cues that are lost in text-only interaction. However, it's
computationally intensive, platform-specific, requires a certain
minimum of CPU/OS/browser, etc.
IRC can be used on an 8086 with a DOS-based client and a modem.
Can avatar-based software say that? Will those people in isolated or
developing nations have access to 400MHz PIIs with 128MB RAM and the
latest copies of Java(script), ActiveX, the browser, etc.?
Using IRC? Simple.
Install the program.
Find out the name of the server.
Type "irc yourname servername"
Find out the name of the channel the discussion is being held in.
Type "/join #channelname"
and from there on in, you read the output, and you just type whatever it
is you want to say. And with a simple command (which I forget offhand)
you can tell the progam to save in a simple text file every bit of the
conversation.
It's not that complicated.
And like William mentions, there are several web-based interfaces that
Berkman Center could install for those who don't already have, or don't
understand, or can't use the text-based or all the myriad GUI clients.
--
Mark C. Langston Let your voice be heard:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.idno.org
Systems Admin http://www.icann.org
San Jose, CA http://www.dnso.org
