Symbiosis in LOs LO11155

Mnr AM de Lange (AMDELANGE@gold.up.ac.za)
Wed, 27 Nov 1996 08:43:59 GMT+2

Ben Compton wrote in LO11119:

> Coming at you from AOL now. . .my wife forced me to get a computer at home
> so she too could enjoy the benefits of internet connectivity (my wife is
> demanding that I restructure this sentence; I refuse to). . .

The possibility of growing together through such a medium is wonderful
news! The family is definitely the most important LO ever to have emerged
in this world. It is the one LO which we always should promote.

> Mike raises what I think is a really important issue. I have been amazed
> (and appreciative) at how freely those who participate on this list share
> their knowledge. At different times, I've wondered how many of you felt
> about sharing your knowledge, sense you're consultants who make money
> through your knowledge. I think Mike provides a valuable perspective.

True words. Not that I have any desire now to make any money through this
medium. I am paid enough by the university to keep my family alive and
together. But I have a small and rather complex enterprise on the sideline
in which I have learnt many lessons, including the basic lesson of all
enterprises: one has to make a fair financial profit to keep it going. If
profit making fails to emerge on Internet, then this wonderful medium is
doomed to mediocrasy, despite all the hype and extacy now.

> A while back I suggested to Rick that it might be possible to have
> Internet-voice conferencing, about topics related to LOs. We were going to
> do an experiment to see if that worked well, but my work schedule was so
> tight I never got around to it. I think, without question, that such a
> thing is possible -- given the technology included in Netscape Navigator
> 3.0 and Microsoft Explorer 3.0. I think that this could include a way to
> charge for participating on an Internet-voice conference.
>
> Let's say (hypothetically) that Mike, Arthur, and At would like to host a
> conference on complexity theory. They could send out a message saying, in
> effect, that on such-and-such date they're going to be giving a voice
> presentation. People could then subscribe to the conference, through
> E-Mail, and pay by credit card. In return, they'd be given a password to
> the conference, and everything would be set and ready to go.

I picture myself as one of my mouth licking dogs at the prospect of a
feast coming up. But will it be possible? Here in South Africa I have to
do most of the interactive Internet work between 6h300-8h00 (SA time - 2
hours before GMT). After 8h00 the South African network, as with the
European networks, becomes clogged with snails as myself. At 12h00, when
the American networks take up traffic, Internet becomes a torture.

You have mentioned Netscape Navigator 3.0 and Microsoft Explorer 3.0. I
wonder if they will work with me. All my work is done on a 386 SX with 4MB
RAM and 40MB HD while having 10 MB on the file server. I use Netscape 2
and it takes 8 minutes just to load! Thus it is snails like me who clog up
Internet without being able to do anything about it.

[Host's Note: I did not think it was possible to run a graphics Web
Browser in 4mb. In this range of computer power, I recommend text only
approaches. ...Rick]

> Copies of each seminar/presentation could be stored in real-time audio
> format on a server somewhere (I have all kinds of friends who would be
> more than willing to give me the disk space for free if something comes of
> this). People could then browse the web, and "purchase" whatever seminar
> or presentation that might interest them.

Believe me, it is not easy to browse the web from third world countries.
Lost signals and noise lead to all sorts of malfunctions. Therefor I would
also like to make another suggestion. (I hope it catches somebody's
attention.)

How about making all these things as well as the
digests of the forum available through CDs.

Although the interactive element is lost, it is much better than nothing.
Furthermore, it makes the accomplishments on this forum available to those
not (yet) connected to Internet. However, it would not be fair to let Rick
take any risks with such CDs. Thus it should be handled as merely another
business proposition. For what it is worth, I will certainly buy a CD with
all the back issues of LO Digests on them. But who else will buy them?

> I like this idea enough to do some groundwork and see what we can get
> going.

Go for it. In my home language "sa" - 'go for it'. (When we say "sa" to
our dogs, they will go for anything, even a lion! However, as soon as
they get the mere smell of the KIng, even the bravest act as having second
thoughts.)

Best wishes

--

At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>