patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) (02/08/89)
UNITEX NETWORK F O R 1013 Bloomfield Street 2nd Floor I M M E D I A T E Hoboken, New Jersey 07030 R E L E A S E February 04, 1989 INTRODUCTION The UNITEX Network hosts and moderates an international conference called UNITEX. This conference or echo, as it is sometimes referred to, is distributed to other PC's that request links to the conference and are also part of a wide area network called FidoNet. FidoNet now has over 6000 nodes that are maintained on a weekly basis via the distribution of an international nodelist that is updated and distributed to all nodes each week. In addition, UNITEX provides a conference 'feed' to users with a Bitnet or UseNet account via our uucp gateway. If you have a user@machine address, the UNITEX Mailing List can arrive automatically on that machine. The mailing list is simply the entire distributed UNITEX conference gated over to uucp standards. This allows our UNITEX conference compatibility with SUN, Micro VAX and mainframe systems. At the present time, UNITEX is operating on a PS/2 Model 60 with 80 MB storage, 1.2MB RAM, A PEP TrailBlazer 19200 Baud Modem. We are running OPUS/CONFMAIL/SEADOG/GROUPMAIL software, MS DOS 3.3 OS along with a host of custom software specifically designed for network interfacing, E-MAIL, file transfers, electronic messaging and conferencing. We have only a single line for direct user access since our primary concern was using our technology for the transmission of information to other systems (de-centralized wide area networks) as opposed to a localized central system that is reached via packet carriers such as, TymeNet, TeleNet, etc) We plan, however, in the near future, to add TBBS software which can allow 32 or 64 simultanious users on a PC running DOS 3.3. That can then be linked into the packet carriers. Our initial main objective is to demonstrate the cost effective technology that is used in the dissemination of information that we provide vis a vis our UNITEX conference, the speed and efficiency of these transmissions via compressed (arced) data flow and, most importantly, the automatic nature of the 'how the infomation arrives on your computer'. The conference is 'delivered' to your computer as opposed to the user calling up a system, scaning areas of interest, downloading information and then addressing electronic mail to that system. The 2-way information flow of material to and from your computer is handled automatically in a distrubued wide-area network system. To these ends, we belive that UNITEX is making a valuable contribution........ UNITEX is now at the crossroads. We have succussfully demonstrated the pilot project for UNITEX in a continuous mode of operation for over one year. UNITEX has been an information provider of relevant UN related news and press releases along with international news from and about developing countries and has 'delivered' the conference to various networks in the micro and unix community. We are currently seeking additional funding to continue this pilot project until it is adapted as a full-time program. We hope that support to continue this project will be forthcoming from Foundations, Universities and Government Agencies where information of this nature is utilized by International Studies Programs, Foreign Affairs and Political Science Departmemts and other Institutes that can utilize the data and information that UNITEX has been providing through the continous distribution of the UNITEX Conference. Please call UNITEX at (201) 653-2806 if you have any knowledge of funding possibilities. This project will come to an end within the next 60 to 90 days if funds for continuation are not provided! The UNITEX CONFERENCE is now available for international distribution via internet microcomputer links as well as a mailing list to UUCP subscribers (UseNet, BitNet, etc). A large portion of the information provided by UNITEX is generated from the interrogation of mainframe United Nations databases via an automated procedure and system specifically designed for this purpose. The program was designed and written by Dr. James Waldron and is called AIRFORCE - Auto Information Retrieval File Organization and Reply Conference Editor. The program automatically scans and downloads several key information areas that are parsed and edited into network compatible messages, bundled into network packets that are automatically addressed to machine sites and then routed via our distribution system. Message packets and file attaches are compressed for transmission and uncompressed automatically upon receipt at the destination address. A description and overview of UNITEX will follow. James Waldron, Ph.D is the Conference Moderator and Senior Director of UNITEX Network. Dorothy Nicklus is the Associate Conference Moderator and Co-director of the UNITEX Network. UNITEX: Data phone (201) 795-0733 Voice Phone: (201) 653-2806 A. CONFERENCE OVERVIEW UNITEX supplies and disseminates information that we obtain from United Nations mainframe databases and related sources. We have been a major advocate for the distribution of 'raw', uncensored and un-edited material obtained from official UN sources and are palying a key role in the acquistion and distribution of this information. It consists of UN press Releases, UN Radio News, International Press News, UNICEF Press Releases, Electronic Publishing (DIPA), related UNICEF documents, Wordwide Disaster News and Relief Plans from UNDRONET. The conference was establised 18 months ago and had a limited distribution in the United States, Canada and Australia. I maintained approximately 12 to 16 direct links at any given time. Due to the interest generated in general and to the timely internatioanl news coverage in specific, vis a vis Soviet-US current affairs, Nobel Peace Prize Award to UN, renewed interest in US space efforts, etc., there has been a mushrooming effect resulting in many requests to receive the UNITEX Echo via the national 'backbone' distribution. In fact, this material is currrently distributed to the NYCENET system which is an educational conferencing and information system developed by the New York City of Board of Education. A pilot program was designed to interface the two networks. B. CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION The issues that UNITEX presents are many and are dependent on current political topics of interest and timely international news. The key areas that we focus on are the following: Human Rights, Disarmament, Amnesty International (Action Alerts), African News, news from and about 3rd World and Developing Countries, World Peace Issues, Space News/NASA and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Worlwide Disaster News & Relief Programs, Technology Transfer and Information Exchange, International Ecological and Environmental Issues, World Health Organization Reports (International health issues, vaccines, etc), Reports from the General Assembly and World Bank (International finance, multi-national and inter-governmental joint ventures, etc) C. CONFERENCE GUIDELINES and RULES Currently, the readers of UNITEX are concerned scientists, educators, teachers and students, as well as governemnt officials, UN delegates and news journalists. Through the vehicle of this conference, UNITEX provides information and promotes information and data exchange on a two-way basis. One should exercise a certain level of 'diplomacy' when addressing issues or people in this conference. There is much to be gained by good-will, patience and understanding and nothing by rash, insensitive and mindless chatter. Think before you write and try to make intelligent thought provoking commentary and stay focused on the issues presented. UNITEX welcomes reader replies and user feedback. It is not a Read-Only conference *but* due to the sensitive nature of many of the international issues that are addressed and the scope and breadth of the distribution, it is strongly *advised* that the UNITEX Area allow only *private* replies to UNITEX (107/701) via netmail to allow for appropriate conference moderation. Individual inquires of a specific nature can be sent via netmail to UNITEX. Systems running Confmail or MGM as an echomail processor can allow echomail with private netmail replies. Simply define the UNITEX echo area as a local private area then Export using Confmail with UNITEX defined as an echo area in areas.bbs If the inquires are useful and of a general interest, then we will publish it in the UNITEX echo. This can help to facilitate conference moderation since absolute moderation on the backbone is not possible. D. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND and PERSPECTIVE The United Nations plays a key role in several areas, such as, population and agricultural studies, world health and medical issues (imunization, new vaccines, treatment programs, etc), international peace agreements, treaties and security, international laws, peaceful uses of outer space, equal rights, human rights and the disemmination of information and international news. UNITEX is an advocate for these issuses and is also strongly commited to modern computer applications in the areas of software design and network development. Apart from our main goals as technology and information providers, UNITEX helps to make the goals and efforts of the United Nations more widely know, add to international understanding and reduce or eliminate misunderstanding. International news and new technological developments occuring in both the industrialized nations and in the developing nations is transmitted by UNITEX to all direct private links as well as to the Fidonet backbone and UUCP distribution system. E. PURPOSE INFORMATION and THE CHALLENGE OF THE 90's The following is a summary of several points that our group introduced to be discussed at the United Nations Special Session on Information occurring on June 13 - June 27, 1988: Advances in communications technology has exacerbated the gap between the developed and developing countries. Information and communications in an interdependent world effect the economy, trade, culture and the development of a nation. Aside from this, confusion about the United Nations is enormous. The ever widening gulf that exists between the developed industrialized nations and the undeveloped countries has been referred to as the "North-South information inequality". A pre-occupied concern of the developing countries is freedom of information (article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and the information inequality that currently exists. To address these specific areas of concern, the UN has referred to the general topic of international co-operation and communication as the "New World Information and Communication Order" Co-operation between the North-South will provide the developing countries with up-to-date know-how and assist in the dissemination of fair coverage of the news about developing nations. Hopefuflly, the technology demonstrated by the UNITEX Network and, in addition, the asscoiated nodes that link into the UNITEX Conference can help narrow this gap using effective, low-cost communication technology and decentralized wide-area networks that are a trademark of both the microcomputer networks (FidoNet) and the UUCP networks, such as, UseNet, BitNet, etc. F. ASSOCIATED FILES Much of the original material that goes into the UNITEX Echo is abstracted from our weekly source text files (created from UN database sources) and are named UNITEX.A??. Since we create these files every Friday, the naming convention is analogous to that used in Fidonet for weekly nodelists and has the same file extension used for NODEDIFF.A??, etc. This will facilitate your file maintenance should you desire to acquire these files. At the present time, they can be file requested from 107/701 between the hours of midnight and 3:00 AM. The file size ranges from 50K to 150K. If there are many requests for these files on a weekly basis, other distribution methods will be arranged. If there are any questions on any of this material, please direct them, via private netmail to: James Waldron Director, UNITEX Fidonet 1:107/701 Alternet 7:520/701 uucp to Fidonet rutgers!rubbs!107!701!James_Waldron ruggers!rubbs!unitex uucp waldron@newport.rutgers.edu or cucard!dasys1!jwaldron TCN 4005 Thank you for your co-operation and support........... -- Patt Haring rutgers!cmcl2!ccnysci!patth patth@ccnysci.BITNET