Documentation keynote speech at the 1991 Networking Forum, Hokkaido, Japan -------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Odd de Presno 4815 Saltrod, Norway Email: opresno@ulrik.uio.no --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes: ===== Visuals used: color slides *** (SLD) text in Japanese kanji --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** (SLD 1a: Map of Norway showing Oslo and Arendal) I was responsible for the Norwegian operations of Control Data's global online services 1976-81 (CYBERNET). Have earned my living "by modem" since 1976. Datapak, a Norwegian packet switching service, made foreign online services available at a very low cost in 1983. Met Izumi Aizu on the Source that year, but not face-to-face until five years later. ;background comment: Hokkaido is a remote area in Japan with relative few inhabitants. This is the reason for this approach. *** (SLD 1: picture of my house) ============================ My work as journalist/modem globe-trotter enabled me to move from the big city to a scenic place by the sea, far away from noise and pollution. *** (SLD 2: picture of my wife) =========================== I have heard that many Japanese women are strong willed. So is this woman. My wife. One night in late 1989 she turned to me in bed and said: "I'm organizing a Children's Cultural Week in our town next year. What will you do to help?" In order to get back to sleep, I promised: "Arrange for our daughter to communicate keyboard-to-keyboard with the granddaughter of Dave Hughes in USA. Everything displayed on a big screen." I forgot, but she did not. In April 1991, she came back to me and wanted a progress report. On the 30th I invited American networkers on several online services to help set up a chat for children on May 12th. A young woman from Washington DC, Nancy Stefanik, took the idea to a group of teachers on SciNet, which is a Canadian conferencing system. *** (SLD 2b: children on May 30th in computer dialog) ================================================= During the 14 days from the 30th until May 12th, 260 children from three countries participated in the dialog. We were surprised by the strong energy in the concept of a dialog between children. The results were presented at the Electronic Networking Association's conference in San Fransisco a few weeks later, and KIDS-91 was born. *** (SLD 3: The four questions) =========================== The concept was simple: to collect responses from children between 10 - 15 years of age to four questions: 1) Who am I? 2) What do I want to be when I grow up? 3) How do I want the world to be better when I grow up? 4) What can I do now to make this happen? It had started as a grassroot movement, and we wanted that to continue. We did not want participation in KIDS-91 to be limited to three countries. Children all over the world were invited to an ongoing global dialog starting in May 1990 and ending in May 1991. *** (SLD 3b: Painting "Olympics in Riga") ===================================== We also wanted the children to visualize their personal visions in some way, for example by making a drawing, using computer graphics, video tape, or whatever. The main means of collecting the children's responses to the four questions were to be through global electronic computer conferencing. Other means of communication were to be used where access to computer conferencing was difficult for technical, economic, or other reasons. On May 12th 1991, the children were invited to "chat" with each other in a huge, global electronic dialog. On that same date we were to exhibit the visual creative responses in Arendal, Norway. Afterwards, selected parts of the exhibition were to be shipped back to the children of the world for them to see and enjoy. *** (SLD 4: Response from Argentina) ================================ Our initial ambitions were enormous, but still limited. We simply set out to collect personal presentations - by electronic or ordinary Post Office Mail - and we wanted to collect creative contributions. It was the right idea at the right time: * the explosive growth of personal computers around the world allowed millions of people to send electronic letters to others. The letters could be sent by telephone to a computer center to be saved on a disk there. Later, the letters could be picked up by the receiver whenever he or she had time, it be today, tomorrow or next month. KIDS-91 received responses to the four questions from 2600 children in 31 countries. They came by electronic mail from countries as far apart as Argentina, Puerto Rico, Finland, Australia, India, Russia, and Japan. *** (SLD 4b: Latvian Folk Art) ========================== * the cost of communication had dropped dramatically during the last couple of years. Suddenly, sending mail to computer centers in the United States and Japan was an affordable opportunity for teachers, parents, and social workers around the world. Even people within the Soviet Union could find the money to involve their children. We received responses from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Moscow, Armenia, Lithuania, Estland, and several other recently free countries in Eastern Europe. *** (SLD 5: Response from Lithuania) =============================== * electronic mail is not as quick as the telefax, but much quicker than ordinary mail. There are significant advantages by sending the mail electronically. One thing is that the receivers can use the messages that they received in various forms. For example: Mike Gorlovoy in Protvina, USSR, and Alicia Banuelo in Buenos Aires could receive the different versions of the KIDS-91 newsletters, and print them out for local distribution on paper. The responses could be stored on a hard disk somewhere, and anyboday can search the messages to find information of interest. * many computer centers allowed the use of electronic mailing lists. These list can be compared with those that many of us use to send New Year greeting cards to our friends. Using computers, however, our messages can be distributed to many people, much quicker. We also had electronic equivalents of the electronic meeting, of "Clubs" and "Conferences". One of these clubs was called KIDCAFE. Using electronic meetings, a structured dialog was possible. KIDS-91 was given free space for administring the electronic meetings on a computer center in North Dakota, USA. All the discussion and news about the project were distributed electronically to the "subscribers" of so-called mailing lists. Later, our discussion forum became several forums, and the focus of the project was extended from just being a system of collecting children's responses into a continuous global dialog between them. * the ability of computer centers to send private electronic mail and public conference mail to other systems around the world had rapidly improved. This further decreased the costs of writing to and discussing with other people. Geographical distance between people are quickly disappearing as a major obstacle for those who want to talk or do things together. *** (SLD 6: Message to a boy in Israel in January. KIDCAFE) ====================================================== KIDS-91 had four electronic discussion forums for children: KIDCAFE the place where they could discuss whatever they wanted to talk about. This message came from children in a school in Paterson, USA, to a boy in Israel during the war in the Middle East. RESPONSE were the children sent in their responses to the four questions. Today, it's a searchable data base filled with information for educators, researchers, and other interested persons. KIDPEACE a discussion forum for War and Peace that we had during the Middle East conflict. KIDPEACE was later closed. We did that because we did not want people to think that KIDS-91 was a peace activist movement. KIDS-ACT a discussion forum where the children could discuss "What They could do Now" to shape their own future. While KIDCAFE was a place to get to know others or get penpals, KIDS-ACT was a place to coordinate projects, discuss important problems etc. These discussion forums were for children between 10 - 15 only. Adults were not allowed to join the discussion. *** (SLD 7: Message from KIDPLAN) ============================= The task of coordinating the project was enourmous. A lot of information was needed by teachers and others to understand how they could get their children involved. For this reason, KIDS-91 had two discussion groups for adults, with free access for everybody: KIDS-91 where interested people could get information about the development of KIDS-91, get background information and exchange experiences. KIDPLAN The planning room. Everything was discussed openly and freely, from technical solutions to networking problems to ethical and political issues in need of a policy decision. Knut Braatane of the Norwegian Council of Advanced Eduction said: "Participating in KIDPLAN has been as important to me as it has been for the children to participate in KIDCAFE and KIDS-ACT. I have learned valuable lessons about computer conferencing and how to make decisions in an online forum." At times, there were more messages in KIDPLAN than in the children's forums. *** (SLD 8: Article in Washington Post) =================================== The explosive growth of the project was noticed by the world press. This full page article was printed in the famous American newspaper Washington Post. KIDS-91 had front page mention in the Canadian newspaper Globe & Mail. Articles were printed in newspapers and magazines from "Sovet" in Protvino outside Moscow in Russia, and Haaretz in Israel, to "Jornal do Brasil" in Rio de Janeiro, Aftenposten in Norway and the "Voice of Armenia" in Jerevan, USSR. *** (SLD 9: Article in "El Resto Del Carlino", Italy) ================================================= News about the project was broadcasted through radio and TV in many countries. On the last day of the project, KIDS-91 was turned into a mass medium in it's own right. We invited the children of the world to participate in a more interactive and direct dialog using all available technologies. A 12 year old Norwegian girl, Line, started the day by talking by computer with Japanese children, who called in through the data center TWICS in Tokyo. At lunch-time she was chatting with children in Europe. When we took her away from the computer at 10.30 at night, she was busy talking with American children. Groups of children in USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Finland, and Norway discussed world problems by video conferencing. Groups of Norwegian and American children talked via video telephone. Children's drawings travelled the world by fax. *** (SLD 10: The KIDLINK Logo) ========================== The day KIDS-91 stopped, and KIDS-92 started. In KIDPLAN we spent months to evaluate and discuss the project. One of our decisions was to give our projects a generic name. The result was: KIDLINK: Global Networking for Youth 10-15 In my view, the following factors have contributed to the success of KIDS-91: * the project was apolitical. We did not deny political activists the right to participate and help us, but they were not allowed to write messages in KIDCAFE or KIDS-ACT. * the project was not owned by an organization. It's owned by you and me and everybody who wants to be a part of it. * everybody was invited to participate and help out. A list of things that we would like to see done was made available for those who wanted to contribute. * everything was out in the open. Even the most controversial issues, like whether to change the age limitations, or how to cope with accusations of being political, were handled openly in KIDPLAN. Everybody can participate in the discussion there. *** (SLD 11: Japanese calligraphy contributions) ============================================ KIDS-91 received many contributions to the creative challenge. This piece of calligraphic art is part of a set sent us from Kawagachi Saitama, Japan. It was selected as one of the group contribution winners by the international Creative Challenge Competition jury. The other winner in this group was a class of students on Maui, Hawaii. They made a computer animation of the KIDS-91 logo. The individual winners were: *** (SLD 11a: Collage) ================== 1. Lukas Souenka, Czechoslovakia, collage 2. Janis Petraskevics, Latvia, composition for flute and piano written especially for KIDS-91 ("The Silent Song"). 3. Two winners: * anonymous from Liepaja, Latvia (water colours), * John Lavta, Czechoslovakia, drawing. *** (SLD 12: KIDS-92 overview) ========================== KIDS-92 has now been going for more than five months. The project will continue until May 19th, 1992. Then, KIDS-93 will start. The structure and objectives are the same. We have already received children's responses from three new countries: Korea, Kenya and Chile. The children's forums are: RESPONSE KIDCAFE KIDS-ACT The coordinators/adult persons forums are: KIDS-91 now only used for review of KIDS-91 KIDS-92 for general information about the current project KIDPLAN the detailed coordination forum KIDPLAN2 an electronic project room, where more detailed, time limited topics can be discussed whenever the need is there. *** (SLD 13: Some contact persons etc. in Japan) ============================================ There are many ways of participating in KIDLINK projects from Japan. All of you are hereby invited to do so. You can join to help or simply to learn. More information is available through the following contact persons: Jeffrey Shapard Email:jefu@twics.co.jp IEC/TWICS, 1-21 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160 JAPAN Phone: +81-3-3351-5977 -- fax: +81-3-3353-6096 Nobuo Hasumi Email: hasumi%aegis.or.jp@kyoto-u.ac.jp Asahi-cyo Elementary School, 2-29-1,Asahi-cyo, Nerima,Tokyo Japan 179 Phone:(81)3-3939-0362 These persons have volunteered to give information about KIDLINK to those who want to help out or participate. You can access our global discussions from Japan in several ways. These are the most common methods right now: NIFTY-Serve/CompuServe TWICS in Tokyo Aegis Society in Kyoto Any online service capable of sending and receiving mail to/from the Internet can be used to participate in KIDS-92! I hope that we will soon be able to announce many other channels of communication to and from Japan in the months to come. *** (SLD 14: KIDS-91 contribution with a futuristic theme) ====================================================== What then does all this mean? What hopes do I have for the future as a consequence of KIDLINK and other similar network oriented projects? The explosive growth of our 'KIDLINK movement' has illustrated the significant energy in anything associated with our children and their future. I hope that our work will have the following side- and direct effects: * help accellerate the use of global electronic mail by a) motivating current email systems to exchange mail with other systems, b) by enabling more children to come online * support widespread acceptance of email and online conferencing as useful means to communicate, learn, mutual support and networking and a lot of other things. * improve the ability of the people of the world to handle the fast and dramatic changes in today's societies: shortened lives of jobs and corporations, of know-how and knowledge. *** (SLD 15: KIDCAFE message from a Kid in Kyoto) ============================================= * spread knowledge and respect of other cultures. * make us better equipped to cope with differences between people, it be differences due to abilities, handicaps, skin color, languages, beliefs or whatever. To help build bridges across socio-economic, ethnic and north-south divides. If you feel these things are important, please consider to join us to help out. *** (SLD 16: Drawing) ================= Thank you for you attention. Oct 06, 91 OdeP/rev. Oct 24, 91.