Sat, 07 Dec 91 00:05:23 CST From: riz%arci01.bo.cnr.it@VM1.NoDak.EDU (Giuliano Ortolani - OT sms Guido Reni - Bologna) Subject: First year of KidLink in Bologna A year of KIDLINK in Bologna - Italy - A year ago, in these days, we have received the first mail from Odd, addressed to the network managers and BBS sysops, about the kids-91 project and the four questions. The mail was received on a computer of the Institute of Radioastronomy of Bologna and we had some perplexities about it. What is this: an game ?, a inter university project ?, a hacker's joke ? ..... From some months we had, on ours computers, some usernames assigned to schools to explore the use of the E-mail, and we pass the mail of Odd to the teachers. If it is was a game, then the kids will play ! Then we have seen hundreds and hundreds of mails coming from all the world, we have seen the kids to pursue the English teachers to translate the mails and to write responses. We have seen the boys to study the mails of the 'kidpeace' list and to write pages and pages of peace on their school-newspapers . If this is a game it is a good game ! Then we decide to extend the 'game' to other kids and to use this opportunity to constitute a structure opened to all the schools. In Italy many schools have personal computers, but nothing of these are linked to the telematic networks, moreover a scientific institute can not accept many schools on the scientific computers. There is the problem to train the use of the communication programs to the teachers and to have an easy interface for the mails interchange. So we involved the Arci Computer Club in Bologna, an amatory association linked with a national cultural institution, in our project to build a BBS. The computer club buy a 486 computer with 200 Mbyte hard disk and a 2400bps modem for about 5000$. Then we install the SCO Unix operating system on the computer and in July of this year we are ready to start to build our system. In the summer we have written the core of the bbs software (using the unix C shell) to have a user interface in Italian language, and in autumn we have set up the link with the Internet scientific network using a UUCP/Internet gateway on a DecStation computer at the Institute of Radioastronomy, all with the remote help of Dan and Odd. Then we have a BBS that have four areas: - A international mail system linked with the kidlink project - A local conference space where we want to speak about common projects like inter-schools newspaper, mathematical games, adventures written by boys, ecology, etc. In this area we want to put also a selection of mails coming from KIDS-92 that propose interesting working projects. - A file area where we have put a hundred of educational programs coming from some international archives. Here we want to put also the programs written by kids in the schools, for the exchange of the software. - A Data base area that we want to fill with data about the searches made by teachers and kids. Moreover, we have put in a catalogue notes about the films and videos released by the boys in our region in the last ten years and a catalogue of the audiovisual tools available in the didactic centers of our city. All the bbs use an easy interface (we hope) in Italian language and many tools to compress/decompress mails and file are available to minimize the cost of the schools connections. Now at the Arci Computer Club there is a group of teachers that works about the BBS and weekly there are meeting to teach the use of the BBS to other teachers and to the boys. There are twenty teachers that use the bbs and seven schools are now on the ARCI01.BO.CNR.IT node of the kidlink network, but we hope to have about twenty schools within June. The BBS computer is besides connected with six local terminals (Personal Computer) that are used by the schools that have not a modem or a phone socket. Many teachers of others cites are phoning to us to have news about ours experience and to participate to the project. To minimize the network traffic we have set up a local exploder on the bbs, then only a mail came from the VM1.NODAK.EDU listserv and this is local delivered to all the schools of ours lists, so we can select the schools to insert in the KIDCAFE and KIDS92 dialogue and the schools that are only on the local lists. (With a network traffic of about 40-60 Kbyte/day in the kidscafe list this is a big advantage). Now we have two visible lists: scboit@arci01.bo.cnr.it for the children linked with kidcafe tcboit@arci01.bo.cnr.it for the teachers linked with kid92 And two local lists: scuole@arci01.bo.cnr,it all the schools prof@arci01.bo.cnr.it all the teachers This organization is very useful for local project and for the teachers that are not ready to support the kidcafe/kids92 waves of kbytes. Unfortunately the are not English teachers in ours group and the English language is not well knows by us (as everybody can verify from this paper ...) In these month we have speak with the municipality of Bologna to solve the bigger problem for the schools that is to have a phone socket in the computer room. The price is about 20$ only, but the bureaucracy is more expensive ..... We are working about an act between Bologna municipality, National Research Council (that support network link and the bbs software), and Arci Computer Club to sponsor the Kidlink project and to have the money to install the phone sockets in the schools. We have named this act 'progetto kidslink' (with the 's' character). We have written a paper (in Italian language) that speaks of the global kidlinks project and of the Bologna activity and that is the base of the act. If someone needs the paper, we can send it. In the site of the Arci Computer Club, we have an other BBS: a Fidonet BBS on a MS-Dos Computer. We have linked the two bbs with ethernet connection and the boys of the computer club are studying a way to connect the two mailers. By this way schools in other cites will use the local Fidonet node to send and receive mails to kidlink using our gateway. But this is only an idea now. Then the Odd's mail, a years ago, was a chance to start with this 'big game' that we hope to continue to play together. Mauro Nanni System Manager Institute Radioastronomy nanni@arci01.bo.cnr.it Giuliano Ortolani Teacher Guido Reni School riz@arci01.bo.cnr.it