a ctdltinemetyraatiad gb MY ~ GETTING WIRED HIGH-TECH hookups are now bringing video conferencing and Internet access to Northwest _— Community College. Three rooms at the college are wired for video conferencing and anyone can now book such a con- ference linking up people all aver the province. -The’ University of Northern B.C, will also be using the tcch- nology to ‘deliver some courses via video conference to students here next semester, _ A. pilot project linking class- ‘rooms in Terrace, Quesnel and Prince George begins in January. During a test demonstration last - Friday, a psychology professor at the main UNBC campus in Prince “George lectured to groups in Quesnel and Terrace. _'To teach the concepts of sensa- ‘tion and perception, the prof ac- tively involved her students in all ‘three classrooms. ‘For example, she asked the groups to sland up, close their eyes while standing on one foot to demonstrate how the different sides of the brain affect balance. “She could watch the Terrace group wobble standing on one foot and the Terrace group could watch Quesnel students. ‘The use of videoconferencing will triple the number of UNBC courses offered in Terrace next ~ semester,” said UNBC regional coordinator Margaret Anderson at College launches video conferencing © the demonstration. Some courses laught by UNBC instructors here will also be piped via video conference to other campuses. The videoconferencing isn’t limited to university courses, though. “This belongs to the public,” says NWCC’s Ron Hastings. ‘‘Anyone who wants to use it can." It’s not free, though, The equipment alone in each of Cheaper, lower speed connec- tions work fine for meetings where people are talking and there isn’t a lot of fast action or motion, **You control the other person’s camera, so if you want to focus in on somebody, you can do that,’ says Hastings. ‘“You can also put documents up on the screen,’' With the existing phone lines, there is a two-second delay be- tween speakers in different centres. “The use of video conferencing will triple the number of UNBC courses offered in Terrace next semester.” the three centres costs about $60,000. Actual video conferences are booked through B.C. Systems Corporation. The price depends on what speed of connection is used and the number of sites connected. A two-site fast video connec- tion for one hour would likely cost about $300." That still can be a big saving over the cost of fying many people into a central conference location. be accelerating. to provide such access. of interested people. * $20 a month for peaple."* will be a big seller {n Terrace. "access in Terrace, price until] Christmas. Freenet idea surfaces here INTEREST IN bringing local Internet access to Terrace secms to Chad Miller, 24, is planning to start a Terrace Freenet Society It’s expensive, he says, but he hopes to organize a meeting soon * The Internet is a global computer information network that al- lows transfer of messages and files worldwide. Miller estimates costs of starting a freenet at up to $10,000 up front, followed by operating costs of around $4,000 a month. “It's quite a sum,” he admitted. “‘But if we got 150 or 200 people and divide the cost down it could work out to as little as “Over the long run it would be less expensive than phoning long distance to Vancouver or the Prince George Free Net.” Actual free access — as the name freenel suggests -- would re- quire substantial commercial sponsorship, he said. That’s how fiecnets were started in Victoria and Prince George. That may not be as feasible here, he added. “It may have to be - more of a user pay type service."” Anyone interested can call Chad Miller at 638-1585, Company to offer net ‘A PRINCE RUPERT entrepreneur hopes full Internet access Peter Livingstone has created Skeena Net Corp to offer Internet Patrons will pay $50 to open an account and will pay $2 an hour, although new users can buy time in advance at half that Livingstone’s 56-kilobit digital link should be operational around Dec, 16 and all the equipment will be housed in space at ‘Northwest Community College. “We're looking al Christmas to actually be. on line,”? he said, Livingstone buys access through B.C. Net, a Crown corporalion. He also bas plans to sell high speed modems and computers, Skeena Net Corp won’t be able to extend net service to Prince Rupert until it completes negotiations with CilyTel, Prince ’ Rupert's city-owned telephone company. “A local BBS also offers Internet mail in Terrace, although it - doesn’ t have a direct connection to the ’net. Sasquatch BBS (data # 635-2184) in the fall added an Internet - gpailbox service, routed through the University of Northern B.C. ‘Users pay $36 a year for access. Once fibre optic lines connect northern B.C., this delay should be eliminated, The other new service is access to the Internet, a global web of computer networks that allows users to search for information and scnd messages to any other user in the world. A change in Northwest Com- munity College’s phone system to more efficient digital lines gives them extra space in Lose lines to add an Internet feed. But for now Internet access will be limited to the college adminis- {rators, instructors and students who already have access to the college’s VAX mainframe com- puter. “We want to open it up to as many people as possible,’’ says Hastings. ‘“But we have to do, it iu stages.’” In order to make it available to all college users, networks have to be created linking the com- puters together at cach campus, and then a larger network to link all NWCC campuses to the main- frame in Terrace, Once that’s in place and all col- lege employces and students are able to use it, they may look at extending access to outside users. ‘We don’t want to promise something to the world that we can’t deliver properly,’’ he said. The Internet access available would allow basic e-mail messag- ing. But Hastings said more com- plex Intemet services that allow database scarching and remote file transfers would be more dif- ficult to make available. He said the college hopes to be able to eventually offer on-line student registration at each centre, on-line library and ac- counting inquiries, internal c-mail and Internet e-mail. Anglican priest pioneers ‘net LOCAL ANGLICAN clergymen is one of northern B.C.’s electronic pioncers. Several years ago Father Jan Mackenzie helped forge Ecunet ~— an interdenominational com- puter network linking clergy worldwide, And he’s just returned from a conference in London where Anglicans were refining their own communications network, Quest International. Preachers may seem a bit out of place cruising down the information highway alongside particle physicists and 14-year-old hackers. Preachers may secm 4 bit out of place cruising down the informa- tion highway alongside particle physicists and 14-year-old hack- crs. But Mackenzie notes that com- munications technology has value to any group of professionals who want to communicate with each other, And it’s particularly important to people in ‘more femote com- munities. - . “They’te the people who need it the most,” says Mackenzie, “The people who live outside the major centres find it the mast cx- citing because it puts them in. louch with the rest of the world, instantly.’’ Ecunct boasts thousands of dis- cussion groups and some 5,000 users, spanning four continents, Electronic sermons and sermon ideas arc available for review by priests on the net. “There is a Whole gamut of in- formation available,’’ Mackenzie says. “Discussions range from wine-lasting to religious humour.” He used Ecunct to wire up the Nisga’a’ Tribal Council: —- of which he is a member -— eight years ago, Now that Ecunet is connected to the Internet, they use it to com- municate with lawyers, consul- tants and cach other in pursuing the Nisga‘a land claim, Mackenzic also uses telecom- munication to remotely direct the Vancouver School of Theology’s native ministrics degree program from this area. Eight or nine Anglican and United Church parishes across the diocese are now on-line, Ecunct’s central. computer where Ecunet resides is in Louis- ville, Kentucky. The Anglicans plan to use their Quest network to broadly distrib- ute information from their 1998 Lambeth conference ‘in Canter: bury, England, The Terrace Standarc, Wednesday, December 7, 1994 - AS CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag Needed: community center Dear Sir: About twenly years or so ago, the residents of Terrace faced a sad reality. The only community center bumed to the ground. This was a very hard blow for the various sports clubs, special i in- terest proups and community club organizers to face, But the school district generously stepped in, offering the schoal gymnasiums as supposedly short term accommodation until Terrace built its own communily center, The municipal elections came along, and Terrace residents were promised a community center “‘to rival all’’. In reality we reccived a family skating arena, a swimming pool the size of an inflated duck pond and nothing else! Twenty-plus ycars is an awful long time to be temporarily housed via the school district gymnasiums! I have great admiration for the school district, They have shown greal patience all this time. The wear and tear of school facilities must have waged havoc with ser- vice repair bills. ‘The school district deserves a monumental hug for their generous contribution to the recreational populace. The time has come for Terrace to assume responsibility for the lack of a municipal com- munity recreation center! There are a few municipal politicians that seem lo bury their coi- lective heads in the blind burcaucratic misconceptions that ‘‘all” Terrace residents are skaters and avid swimmers. Come on folks! Do you really believe that the present use of the school gym- nasiums is more then adequate to date? Not to point any fingers bul can you say ‘‘there is no need?” Listen to us, and if not us, listen to the young, are they spending all their free time down town creating and causing havoc out of sheer boredom? The very concept that recreational interests of Terrace residents are the same, is down right wrong and incompetent! Wake up! You would think the recent death of one of Terrace’s residents should enlighten the municipal politicians. The death of a young person regardless of all excuses and explanations should not go un- heeded. One death is far too many, especially if that death concerns the untried, untested youth of our town! The meaning of adequate recreational community facilities is that they are accessible, affordable, and most of all available to all groups. Terrace offers services to over nine smaller communities and this aspect should be taken into consideration. Terrace is the main hub of the Pacific Northwest. We should be proud of that fact. But pride falls, when one looks al Terrace, and realizes, that it is the only major community without a fainily recreational community center! Sam Lincoln, Lewie Benson, Lyle Stanley, Tim Burkett, Rocksanne Taylor, Terrace, B.C. Nothing wrong with this. Dear Sir: Regarding your article “‘Nisga’a leaders playing hard ball ‘in claims lalks’’, Nov. 9, 1994, I see nothing wrong with the Nisga’a negotiating practices. We taught them the rules of the game, and then complain that they are such able studenis. 1 only wish we could become as proud of our heritage as Canadians. We complain when natives receive “privileged”? slatus. We should. stop treating natives as children. It is costing them and us too much, Any hostility toward the ‘‘privileges’’ that natives reccive should be directed at our politicians (and ourselves for electing them). We have set the rules, and now in typical ostrich style we want to bury our heads rather than solve the problem, - 1 hope the Nisga’a and other native negotiators, are available to act on Canada’s international negotiating, team soon. We need their conviction and intelligence. * Bruce Toms, Terrace, BC. _ Just a prank Dear Sir: After reading the story “Incidents probed”? i in your Nov. 30 issue, . I realized that I too had been a victim of those vicious perpetrators that burst into the classrooms in late November. That is, ‘the threc men in military style uniforms blasting plastic bullets in a pantomime of Mare Lepine shooting and killing 14 women as was scemed to inferred by Mr. Baker. Luckily we have the full force of the RCMP to handle this ‘‘inci- deni’. What I saw while sitting in my Anthropology class that evening was three adolescent boys dressed in regular clothing with hand- kerchiefs over their faces engaged in a silly prank. They ran in with those brightly coloured plastic toy guns that shoot those plastic darts with the rubber ends that I used to lick with my tongue and stick to a window when I was a kid. They did not shoot at any women at all in my class. Some stu- dents said that these kids were just carrying their ongoing dorm. games over lo class. The majority of the class seemed amused. I could nol see any visible signs of fright in my class. I’m glad I’m in college. I know what ‘‘anal retentive’’, ‘‘political- ly correct’’, “over-reaction and ‘ ‘inflammatory’ mean. 1. This was a prank. An incident is whai happens in Bosnia. Watergate was ‘‘probed’’, 2. They didn’t even fire at any women in my class, s0 to conncet this to Marc Lepine stretches at Icast my imagination. 3. Every day is close to the anniversary of some senseless act of violence. It is ridiculous to connect a prank in November to a Dec, 6 anniversary. What headlines can I expect to see next summer?. - “Water pistol wielding thugs terrorize picknickers at beach?" - John Pequin, Student, Terrace, B.C, THE START IS FOR PEOPLE LEARNING TO READ The Start Food hampers THE SALVATION Ariny is taking names from people who want food hampers, Those who want a food hamper also need to get a number. People who want a hamper should go to the old liquor store, That's. ‘Where the Salvation Army has sct up its hamper office, It is open from i p.m. ta 4 p.m,, Tuesday to Saturday. The dead- dine is Dee. 14, . Hampers will be given out beginning Dee. 20.' The Salvation Anny also needs help with the hampers, You can call 635-5489, Or you can call the Volunteer Bureau at 638-1330.