======================================================================= Map of KidLink - by Mark Hunnibell (HUNNIBEL@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU) ======================================================================= (revised on Jan 30, 1992) For many people, the concept of Kids-92 and the other KidLink projects is difficult to understand. The information which follows was prepared to introduce anyone to a system which lets KidLink messages travel all over the world very quickly. A "map" of how KidLink really works would be very very complex and have many layers. This "map" is a greatly simplified depiction of the many interconnections involved in making KidLink work. At the heart of the KidLink communication network is a message distri- bution program called the Revised List Server, or LISTSERV. There are currently 266 large individual computers in the world running the LISTSERV software. These computers all have connections to the BITNET computer network, which is a network used predominantly by educational institutions and individuals. BITNET is accessable to/from other net- works like INTERNET through "gateways." Using BITNET, Internet, gate- ways, and other computer systems, the LISTSERV running on the North Dakota State University (USA) computer acts as the KEY conduit for the messages from/to all Kids-92 participants. The North Dakota system is the LISTSERV for many other lists and sends 10,000 to 17,000 mail items on an average weekday. There are currently over 2,700 lists worldwide being 'hosted' by the 266 systems running LISTSERV. Anyone interested in current lists/hosts can get a list by sending the command 'LIST GLOBAL' to any LISTSERV system (i.e. listserv@vm1.nodak.edu). Since Kids-92 people are all kinds of people in all kinds of places, the way each person participates in Kids-92 is different. What LISTSERV does is send electronic mail messages to everyone (or every "thing") who has subscribed (no money involved) to the KIDS-92 LIST maintained on the LISTSERV at North Dakota. The KIDS-92 LIST is therefore just a list of electronic mail addresses with accompanying real names of the people, agencies, gateways, computers, and even other computer net- works. Each address on the list receives all messages sent to the list. What each receiving address does with messages from the LISTSERV is dependent on what that address represents: 1. People: Most of the addresses on the lists belong to individu- als. They include teachers, kids, and other supporters of KIDLINK. Some of the participants get the messages just for themselves. It is more likely, however, that the mail is passed along, sometimes electro- nically, to other people or systems who are not able to directly sub- scribe to the list. This is especially true of the teachers on the list who share the messages with all their students. In this way, the personal subscribers to the list actually represent manual conduits for Kids-92 messages; often a two-way conduit. 2. Gateways: This is a path or "echo" address which tells the LISTSERV where to send messages so that they are accessable over a whole other network (like FidoNet or FrEdMail). The receiving gateway then passes the messages on to people or systems on that network. 3. Computers and other computer networks: Some of these systems are often called "mail-exploders" because they receive the Kids-92 messages through a "porter ID" and then make those messages available to members of that computer system. SciLink (Canada), a founding and continuing supporter of KidLink projects, is one such system. Systems like SciLink receive the Kids-92 messages and automatically "strip" the message of the bulky and compli- cated "header" which tells the reader exactly where and how the message got there. To the most users, this information is 99% useless and it is not missed on such systems as SciLink. SciLink, like some other sys- tems, also allows members to send messages back to the applicable LIST (i.e. KIDCAFE, KIDS-92, etc.) automatically by sending any messages posted to special conference areas. Other systems, like SKOLE-KOM (Denmark), Bergen By Byte (Norway), or TWICS (Japan) do not support automatic messages to the LISTSERV. All of these systems, however, have special Kids-92 areas on their ser- vice and are accessable by local modem dial-up as well as (in the case of SciLink and several others) connection through a commercial computer network such as BT Tymnet. They are, therefore, available worldwide to anyone with a modem. Local capabilities, procedures, and rules vary for each system and will be available from the operators of the system. So, while the Kids-92 list had 315 addressees on it as of Jan 25, 1992, the actual number of participants in Kids-92 alone is a multiple of that number. Also, since Kids-92 is only one of several KidLink project lists (Currently there are: KIDS-92, RESPONSE, KIDS-ACT, KIDCAFE, KIDPLAN, KIDPLAN2, KIDPROJ, KINDEX), there are participants in the other lists who may not be members of the Kids-92 list. It should be noted that KidLink is NOT the name of any list, but is a name developed to encompass the entire realm of the Kids-XX related projects. Below is an actual excerpt of the KIDS-92 list from mid-October 1991. You will see several examples of each of the types of addresses des- cribed above on the list. Sometimes the electronic addresses are im- possible to decipher unless you're a network genius, but other addres- ses can be quite suggestive and informative as to the nature of the system involved. * KIDS-92 LIST * Coordinator: Odd de Presno opresno@ulrik.uio.no * Established 04/07/91 See also KIDCAFE, KIDPLAN, RESPONSE, et al. hasumi%aegis.or.jp@jpnkyoto.bitnet Nobuo Hasumi ICARE@ASUACAD Adele Entz Arizona State Univ NTJSINK@CLUST1.CLEMSON.EDU JEANNE SINK 76702.1434@COMPUSERVE.COM Kevin McKeown 76703.674@COMPUSERVE.COM Chuck Lynd ULIMJ@CSEARN Milan Jira kids-92@CSOURCE.OZ.AU Fidonet Gateway UBJVM6Q@UK.AC.BBK.CU Mike Burleigh 75901439@DCU.IE Conor Mac Hale REE_KIDS@ECC.TASED.EDU.AU Reece High School kids92@FRED.ORG FrEdMail Network rspiel@LLNC.LINKNET.COM Learning Link haley@LOGDIS1.SM.AFLC.AF.MIL Rusty Haley LOSS_CUTLER%UTDSSA.DECNET@RELAY.THE.NET Ken Loss-Cutler EAT1595@RITVAX.ISC.RIT.EDU Pittsford Middleschool kids92@SCILINK.UUCP SciLink KIDS-92 Porter kids-92@SENDIT.NODAK.EDU SEND-IT Conferencing System kidnews@TEKNOLOGI.AGDERFORSKNING.NO KidLink Newspaper kids92@TMN.COM Kids-92 Conference, Iris stefanik@TMN.COM Nancy Stefanik rich@TOSH.WCC.GOVT.NZ Richard Naylor k92-news@TSO.UC.EDU TriState Online Dan.Wheeler@UC.EDU Dan Wheeler opresno@ULRIK.UIO.NO Odd de Presno kddlab!twics.co.jp!kids_92@UUNET.UU.NET TWICS Listmaster LONGFELLOW@VAX.CORD.EDU Longfellow School delwynnex@VAX12.VICCOL.EDU.AU Delwynne Peterson danziger%vm1.yorku.ca@VM1.NODAK.EDU Itamar Danziger C73221DC@WUVMD Doyle Cozadd Claus_Berg@skole-kom.uni-c.dk Claus Berg During the course of the Kids-92 and other KidLink projects, kids and adult participants have developed many documents and files which might be useful for others on a continuing basis in order to better under- stand or participate with KidLink projects. The LISTSERV helps people get these files by keeping a file archive or INDEX of files associated with each list. These files are supplemented and updated frequently and their availability and content is often announced in a message sent to the list. A current index of the KIDS-92 archives follows: FILES IN KIDS-92 ARCHIVES rec last - change filename lrecl nrecs date time Info about. -------- --- ----- ----- -------- -------- ----- ARTCAT 80 116 91/08/10 09:14:53 Catalog of KIDLINK Gallery ART001 80 247 91/07/01 20:53:45 Sean Keithly GIF/UUE ART001-B 8192 2 91/08/06 09:18:18 Sean Keithly GIF/Binary File ART002 80 132 91/09/14 14:10:25 Jeremy Naylor GIF/UUE BINSTART 80 329 91/08/14 20:37:10 Binary Starter Kit BSPEECH 80 203 91/09/13 11:19:06 CHILD 80 46 91/09/10 05:48:32 CONTACTS 80 129 91/09/24 10:48:18 People to contact about KIDS-92 EDUCOM 80 280 91/09/28 06:33:30 EDUCOM 91 Announcement GENERAL 80 444 91/07/06 15:19:40 What is KIDS-92? GEO-DAT 80 198 91/10/14 06:30:07 Data files for GeoClock GIVE 80 97 91/09/13 11:48:05 Problems with GET command? LESSONS 80 1251 91/08/23 09:01:17 World Summit Lesson Plans LOGO-BGF 7501 1 91/08/06 09:18:50 KIDLINK logo GIF/Binary File LOGO-BPX 8192 2 91/08/06 09:19:11 KIDLINK logo PCX/Binary File MATRIX 80 331 91/09/13 11:16:35 Article in The Matrix MINISAGA 80 97 91/09/13 10:08:25 Project invitation CHATBACK NEWS1-92 80 510 91/07/03 06:48:00 Newsletter#1, NEWS2-92 80 311 91/08/11 08:18:43 NEWS292N 80 265 91/10/13 06:27:44 Newsletter #2 in Norwegian PEOPLE 73 841 91/09/02 16:47:33 Kids-92 People PHONEVU 80 466 91/06/07 09:07:32 The PhoneVu videophone POLICIES 80 90 91/09/29 08:10:20 KIDS-92 Policies PROJECTS 80 157 91/08/20 09:20:20 KIDLINK Project Overview REPORT 80 264 91/09/24 09:49:58 KIDS-92 in the classroom TIPS92 80 224 91/05/24 11:59:57 Tips about using KIDS-92 UNCED 80 253 91/08/18 02:51:15 UN Conference on Env. & Devlpm. WISH 80 60 91/08/07 05:08:27 KIDLINK Wish List Plus there are weekly log files of all messages sent to LIST starting May 1991. The files can be obtained by sending a command like GET KIDS-92 WISH to the LISTSERV. Each of these files has been reviewed by KIDLINK organizers and planners and can be very useful for new participants. Some participants might not be able to handle the high volume of mes- sages sent on a daily basis and these people or systems might want to consider getting the LOG files referred to in the paragraph above. Particiating in KidLink in this way would allow one to un-subscribe from a given list while still receiving all the messages in a reaso- nably timely manner. The LOG file names are listed in the ARCHIVE index (none shown above) which is available to those with a good network connection. Sending the command INDEX KIDS-92 or INDEX KIDCAFE to the LISTSERV will tell LISTSERV to send you a current index of the archives. From there you will use the GET command to get a file. To accompany the information in the preceding paragraphs, I have pre- pared a greatly simplified "schematic" map of Kids-92. It may not reflect the physical or electronic realities of all systems, but it might allow you or others to understand something about how the system works when words did not. I have represented each "location" with a number in brackets which is keyed to the table at the bottom giving more specific information for that "location." Again, this map is by no means complete. Here is the Map: - - -- --BITNET--+ +--------Internet--- -- - - - | | ICARE@ASUACAD[2] [1]opresno@ULRIK.UIO.NO | | WHEELER@UCBEH[3]------[3]Dan.Wheeler@UC.EDU | | johnson@wcuvax1[4] [5]NTJSINK@CLUST1.CLEMSON.EDU | | ULIMJ@CSEARN[6] [x]CompuServe.Com Gateway | | | +-------------+ | [7]76702.1434 Kevin McKeown | | | [x]<-----gateway------>[x] [8]76703.674 Chuck Lynd | | | | | [9]CompuServe Education Forum | ===========[0] | /LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU LISTSERV@NDSUVM1/ | [0]============ [10]kddlab!twics.co.jp!kids_92@UUNET.UU.NET | | | [11]kids-92%aegis.or.jp@KYOTO-U.AC.JP | | | [12]LOSS_CUTLER%UTDSSA.DECNET@RELAY.THE.NET | | | [13]danziger%vm1.yorku.ca@VM1.NODAK.EDU BITNET | | | [14]doddsgrmjhs@FRANKFURT-EMH1.ARMY.MIL | | | [x]<--gateway--->[x] [15]kidnews@TEKNOLOGI.AGDERFORSKNING.NO | | | - -- -+ +--+--+--+--Internet---- --- -- - - - - - | | PEN Santa Monica[16] [31]@TSO.UC.EDU | | 75901439@DCU.IE[17] [32]UBJVM6Q@UK.AC.BBK.CU | | kids-92@CSOURCE.OZ.AU[18] [33]rich@TOSH.WCC.GOVT.NZ | | kids92@FRED.ORG[19] [34]@SCILINK.UUCP | | | @TMN.COM[20] | [27]@web.apc.org | | scarruth@CS.UAH.EDU[21] [35]rspiel@LLNC.LINKNET.COM | | kids-92-l@igc.org[22] [36]LONGFELLOW@VAX.CORD.EDU | | | @igc.org[23] | [37]scuole@arci01.bo.cnr.it | | | @ax.apc.org[24] | [38]@SENDIT.NODAK.EDU | | | @ni.apc.org[25] | [38]REE_KIDS@ECC.TASED.EDU.AU | | | @peg.apc.org[26] | [40]@skole-kom.uni-c.dk | | | @web.apc.org[27] | [41]EAT1595@RITVAX.ISC.RIT.EDU | | | @glas.apc.org[28] | [42]delwynnex@VAX12.VICCOL.EDU.AU | | | @gn.apc.org[29] | [43]Kids.Kids-92@CS.BBB.NO | | | @gn.apc.org[30] | [44]CNET2SH@UHCCVX.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU | | | [45]kids-92%proteus.UUCP@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU | | - - -- --- ----Internet--+-----+--Internet---- --- -- - - - - - [0] LISTSERV: This is the distribution system computer. [1] Odd de Presno, KidLink Director [25] Nicarao, Nicaragua [2] Adele Entz Arizona St. Univ. USA [26] Pegasus Computer, Australia [3] Dan Wheeler, U.of Cincinnati USA [27] WEB Conference Computer, Canada [4] Patti Johnson, MicroLink BBS [28] GlasNet, Russia/may not be online (manual relay) [29] GreenNet, England [5] Jeanne Sink, Morningide Middle School, South Carolina, USA [30] NordNet, Sweden (via GreenNet) [6] Milan Jira, Charles Univ. Prague, Note for 22-30: Some of these systems Czechoslavakia may be feeding to local BBS systems. [7] Kevin McKeown, Santa Monica, USA [31] Tri-State Online, Cincinnati Ohio USA [8]/[9]Chuck Lynd, System Operator, CompuServe Education Forum [32] Mike Burleigh, Oldfield House School, Hampton, England [10] TWICS Network, Tokyo, Japan [33] Richard Naylor, Wellington City [11] The Aegis Computer System, Japan Council, Wellington, Zealand [12] Ken Loss-Cutler, Dallas TX USA [34] SciLink Conference Computer, Toronto, Canada [13] Itamar Danziger (age 11), Canada [35] Learning Link Consortium [14] Tunner Jr. High School, Rhein Main AFB, Germany [36] Longfellow School [15] KidLink Newsletter for Kids [37] 12 Schools in Bologna, Italy (use prof@arci01... for teachers) [16] Public Electronic Network Santa Monica, CA USA [38] SENDIT Conferencing System [17] Conor Mac Hale, Colaiste Eoin, [39] Reece High School, Devonport, Dublin, Ireland Tasmania, Australia [18] Fidonet Gateway, Australia [40] Skole-Kom, KIDLINK Denmark [19] FrEdMail Network, Australia [41] Pittsford Middle School, Pittsford, New York, USA [20] Kids-92 Conference, Iris [42] Delwynne Peterson, Avila College [21] Alabama Supercomputer Network Melbourne, Australia Feed to 24 (and growing) schools [43] Bergen By Byte Conference [22] Institute for Global Communication System, Norway Feed to APC connected systems [44] Harold Miller, Seabury Hall [23] PeaceNet, EcoNet, ConflictNet, USA High School, Maui, Hawaii USA [24] Alternex, Brazil [45] Proteus Group. Montreal Quebec Feed to Optimum Computers BBS and area schools in Usenet format. NOTES: (1) When it is KNOWN that there are multiple users/recipients of the KidLink distribution, or that there are several inter-related users using the same host system, that is shown as '' at an address/host. (2)Systems 22- 30 are each independent systems. IGC 'feeds' all list messages in a special format to the other APC systems maintaining mirror 'conferences.' Please send updates/changes/comments to Odd de Presno (opresno@ulrik.uio.no). =================================CUT HERE=================================== op021192