Nexus - 0108 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

PEGASUS NETWORK New TimesCommunications Northern NSW is getting ready to There will be a section devoted to vided by Telecom and OTC, the cost of surprise us all again and create yet an- ‘classified ads’ that publicises various information flow - both nationally and other innovation, arising from the in- activities, so that you can find out if, internationally - is much lower than credible nexus that has established itself where and when Permaculture or Wic- usual, And computers that communi- there. can get-togethers are scheduled in com- cate through Pegasus don’t have to be Computer networking and commu- ing months. very big or expensive or even very simi- nications are important for effective ac- There will be forums and confer- lar. tion. This has been proven overseas ences, both public and private, where where there are huge op era people will be discussing various topics a OW -Bu d g et networks of personal computers. The list or organising actions. If necessary, some . of cr that = and contrib- of theseconferences will havea modera- Netw orki ng ute to this computer network is long and tor provided who will work to guide the illustrious, ranging from American ho- discussions of the participants. The costs for people using meopaths to the German Greens, the Organisations which use Pegasus Pegasus come in several parts. Obvi- Sierra Club and the Hopi Epicentre. It’s will beable torun their own conferences ously there is the cost of acomputer and been set up by environmental and simi- ona national basis, just like hiring some a modem for telephone connection. lar special interest groups toco-ordinate space - memory space. These could be Then there's just a local call charge (even theinformationand organisational flow either public access and contribution- for long distance calls) to hook up to amonglike-minded groupsand toestab- based or private, like ongoing confer- Pegasus. Then comes the Pegasus fee lish new national networks. ences organising mailout or voter regis- which is about $8 to $16 an hour connect A group in Lismore is about to time, with a surcharge for overseas access. A stock standard cost struc- ture like that is very familiar to many business types but this is ata fraction of the prices they’re used to. And the networking software has built-in accountancy functions to automatically figure out who owes what to whom. You can have a look at what these international nets have on them. All you need to do is estab- lish an account with OTC and dial the PeaceNet, EcoNet or GreenNet gateway numbers, for example, and create accounts with them di- establish something called the Pegasus Network as the Australian node in this network. The Pegasus network is a very orthodox computer network, in a technical sense. Itsdesign concepts have existed and been used for a couple of decades and are used in every way by banks and govern- ments. It uses a pretty standard super big personal computer working asa central clearing house that can handle about twelve tasks ~ like conversations - at a time. The software that guides it has been developed from a program called Next tration campaigns. rectly. Pegasus canhelp you in this proc- which was a kind of academic confer- It gives access to text databases, both ess. encing system used in America. |t’s been local and overseas. You could for in- The Pegasus node itself will not be extensively tested and upgraded. stance search and find out the state of online until July this year as they’re still The beauty of this node is that it will environmental legislation in Florida, in the setting-up process. Just to ensure provide computer facilities for much USA. Locally,a number of organisations that they‘ve learned the techniques in- less than the usual cost of tens of dollars such as the Wilderness Society, the volved they will be testing the system an hour for access - and which are Australian Conservation Foundation, from July to September. There'll be only unique in that Pegasus is full of informa- Permaculture groupsand places like the limited access while that’s happening. tion directly relevant to change and Rainforest Information Centre are inter- In the meantime they’re taking sub- saving this planet. ested in setting up databases on subjects scriptions - $30 includes a couple of free So what exactly does this Australian ranging from the House voting records hours of access and a user manual that central node do? It will have large of various politicians toa complete elec- shows you how to get around in the net. amounts of data storage available - at tronic copy of the world Rainforest I’ve sent off for my copy. least 60 to 100 megabytes. This space is Report. used to store the information that makes This Pegasus computer is linked to References : lan Peters (066) 218765 up the various databases and hold mes- the rest of the nct using high technology Pegasus Project sages that can be conferences, private normally reserved for linking large P.O. Box 368, Lismore 2480 messages and organisation between mainframes together. By using some- -M'Bob users. thing called packet switching systems pro- "NEXUS New Times Eight - Autum PEGASUS NETWORK New TimesCommunications Northern NSW is getting ready to There will be a section devoted to vided by Telecom and OTC, the cost of surprise us all again and create yet an- ‘classified ads’ that publicises various information flow - both nationally and other innovation, arising from the in- activities, so that you can find out if, internationally - is much lower than credible nexus that has established itself where and when Permaculture or Wic- usual, And computers that communi- there. can get-togethers are scheduled in com- cate through Pegasus don’t have to be Computer networking and commu- ing months. very big or expensive or even very simi- nications are important for effective ac- There will be forums and confer- lar. tion. This has been proven overseas ences, both public and private, where where there are huge op era people will be discussing various topics a OW -Bu d g et networks of personal computers. The list or organising actions. If necessary, some . of cr that = and contrib- of theseconferences will havea modera- Netw orki ng ute to this computer network is long and tor provided who will work to guide the illustrious, ranging from American ho- discussions of the participants. The costs for people using meopaths to the German Greens, the Organisations which use Pegasus Pegasus come in several parts. Obvi- Sierra Club and the Hopi Epicentre. It’s will beable torun their own conferences ously there is the cost of acomputer and been set up by environmental and simi- ona national basis, just like hiring some a modem for telephone connection. lar special interest groups toco-ordinate space - memory space. These could be Then there's just a local call charge (even theinformationand organisational flow either public access and contribution- for long distance calls) to hook up to amonglike-minded groupsand toestab- based or private, like ongoing confer- Pegasus. Then comes the Pegasus fee lish new national networks. ences organising mailout or voter regis- which is about $8 to $16 an hour connect A group in Lismore is about to time, with a surcharge for overseas access. A stock standard cost struc- ture like that is very familiar to many business types but this is ata fraction of the prices they’re used to. And the networking software has built-in accountancy functions to automatically figure out who owes what to whom. You can have a look at what these international nets have on them. All you need to do is estab- lish an account with OTC and dial the PeaceNet, EcoNet or GreenNet gateway numbers, for example, and create accounts with them di- establish something called the Pegasus Network as the Australian node in this network. The Pegasus network is a very orthodox computer network, in a technical sense. Itsdesign concepts have existed and been used for a couple of decades and are used in every way by banks and govern- ments. It uses a pretty standard super big personal computer working asa central clearing house that can handle about twelve tasks ~ like conversations - at a time. The software that guides it has been developed from a program called Next tration campaigns. rectly. Pegasus canhelp you in this proc- which was a kind of academic confer- It gives access to text databases, both ess. encing system used in America. |t’s been local and overseas. You could for in- The Pegasus node itself will not be extensively tested and upgraded. stance search and find out the state of online until July this year as they’re still The beauty of this node is that it will environmental legislation in Florida, in the setting-up process. Just to ensure provide computer facilities for much USA. Locally,a number of organisations that they‘ve learned the techniques in- less than the usual cost of tens of dollars such as the Wilderness Society, the volved they will be testing the system an hour for access - and which are Australian Conservation Foundation, from July to September. There'll be only unique in that Pegasus is full of informa- Permaculture groupsand places like the limited access while that’s happening. tion directly relevant to change and Rainforest Information Centre are inter- In the meantime they’re taking sub- saving this planet. ested in setting up databases on subjects scriptions - $30 includes a couple of free So what exactly does this Australian ranging from the House voting records hours of access and a user manual that central node do? It will have large of various politicians toa complete elec- shows you how to get around in the net. amounts of data storage available - at tronic copy of the world Rainforest I’ve sent off for my copy. least 60 to 100 megabytes. This space is Report. used to store the information that makes This Pegasus computer is linked to References : lan Peters (066) 218765 up the various databases and hold mes- the rest of the nct using high technology Pegasus Project sages that can be conferences, private normally reserved for linking large P.O. Box 368, Lismore 2480 messages and organisation between mainframes together. By using some- -M'Bob users. thing called packet switching systems pro- Low-Budget Networking - M'Bob 22 NEXUS New Times Eight - Autumn 1989