patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) (06/27/89)
[Newsday runs its own electronic bulletin board
at 1-516-454-6959 (24 hrs)]
From: NEWSDAY, Sunday, June 25, 1989 NY edition, p.7
[reprinted without permission]
Computer Network Is Student Lifeline
by D.D. Guttenplan
(Photo of Columbia's Jiang Yuan by Newsday/Alan Raia)
The news from China was not good.
At City College, Weng Gezhi, 28, a biophysicist, was worried about a
classmate back in Beijing.
At Columbia, another Chinese student was frantically trying to find
out about a friend who had been so inspired by the students in
Tianamen Square that he had flown from UCLA to join them.
Like many Chinese in the United States, these two students devoured
newspaper, television and radio accounts of events in their
homeland. But for the absolute latest in news, rumor and
commentary on China, they logged on to BITNET.
"His name was Ziao Bo," Weng says. "At Beijing University we used to
both talk about studying in America. Now I am here, and I just
found out he is dead. His wife just gave birth to twins."
What is BITNET? Former CUNY Vice Chancellor Ira Fuchs, who invented
it, calls BITNET "a computer network designed to facilitate
academic interchange." Ben Klein, who runs CUNY's West 57th Street
mainframe, which links the school by satellite and landline to
universities from Taiwan to Berkeley, likens BITNET to an endless
telephone conversation. "It's like calling your friend and never
hanging up," he says.
But for Jiang Yuan, the Columbia engineering student whose friend
had disappeared -- and for thousands of other Chinese students --
BITNET has become a lifeline.
"My connections in this country besides New York are really all on
the computer," says Jiang. "I have so many friends. In a short
few days you can have such an intimate conversation you feel you know
the other person and you feel you can be friends."
Ding Jian, the UCLA student who flew back to China, was one such
friend. "We both graduated from Beijing University" says Jiang,
"but we never had a chance to meet over there. The first time I
knew him was on BITNET, because he posted so many good articles.
We think about the same things, we agree on many things, and
although we still never met, I feel he is my friend."
The network's beginnings were modest. "It was started in 1981 by
myself and Graydon Freeman, who was then at Yale. I was at CUNY,"
says Fuchs, now vice president for computing at Princeton.
"We started out connecting those two schools," says Fuchs, "and
just grew and grew and grew." Between 500 and 600 American
universities are now members, paying a flat yearly fee for unlimited
use of BITNET''s extremely high-speed lines. Permanent links with
ASIANET and EARN, a European network, bring the total number of
computers connected to more than 2,600.
BITNET's speed and accessibility -- most major universities are
members -- make it attractive to students. But what makes it
irresistible is the cost.
"There are no volume charges," Fuchs explains, so students pay
nothing.
Zhong Si-Fen, 30, came from Canton to NYU to study computer science.
Since the crackdown, he has spent even more time in the lab. "The
BITNET connects to Hong Kong, to England, to everywhere," says
Zhong, "so all the students, when they find something out about
China, they post it in BITNET. Eventually it appears in the
newspaper, but BITNET is much faster."
One place BITNET doesn't go is China, so students can speak
without fear of being monitored by authorities. And USENET,
another network that uses ordinary telephone lines, does have a
China connection via the University of Karlsruhe in West Germany.
USENET also has a computer bulletin board called SOC.CULTURE.CHINA
that often finds its way onto BITNET. Originally set up as a kind
of electronic discussion group, it has become part college bull
session, part news service, part organizing tool. One recent
entry contained step-by-step instructions for using a laser printer
and fax machine to smuggle into China photos of Chinese troops
shooting students.
With about 6,000 Chinese or Chinese-American students at CUNY alone,
the computer has also become a powerful fundraising tool. "A friend
at Purdue suggested we use the network to collect donations," says
Columbia's Jiang. "We raised enough money to buy a mimeograph
machine, a Chinese character typewriter and a photocpier for
the students in Beijing. Another person I met on the network said
he had a contact with students in Beijing so we arranged a channel
to get the machines into China."
Such optimism now seems sadly out of date. Instead, the students now
anxiously scan their screens for news from home.
"Ding Jian has been arrested," says Jiang, referring to the friend
he knew only throught the computer. "It was really sad and I
cried. If felt he was my close friend."
--
Patt Haring | Vote * YES * for creation of
rutgers!cmcl2!ccnysci!patth | misc.headlines.unitex
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | email votes to: patth@ccnysci.UUCP