CHAPTER FOUR NPTN PROGRAMS: CYBERCASTING AND NETWORK INFORMATION SERVICES In addition to programs such as Academy One and the Teledem- ocracy program, NPTN provides network-wide information services, called "cybercasts" to its affiliates. The following represents something of a catalog of the kinds of information features which are available from NPTN. ELECTRONIC NEWS SERVICES (available via the American Cybercasting Corporation) THE LOS ANGELES TIMES - Get all the news your users need from the most renowned name in journalism west of the Mississippi. The Los Angeles Times can bring you insight like no other, into the news from the western U.S. You'll also receive a perspective on the news, you can't get from eastern papers. THE WASHINGTON TIMES - Washington's newest daily, provides excellent information, insight, and depth to the news. The infor- mation found in The Washington Times gives the perspective neces- sary to understand the news from our Capitol and the World. Now you can bring this excellent reporting and information on to your users. USA TODAY DECISIONLINE - Concise and informative, USA TODAY Decisionline provides your users with a superb overview of the days events. Each night USA TODAY's editorial staff prepares crisp news summaries in eighteen useful categories. Develop a broad overview of the news quickly and efficiently. Excellent for everyone from students, to busy executives. INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY - Investor's Business Daily (IBD) is the nations hottest Business Newspaper, and its not at all sur- prising. IBD provides the most complete and insightful business news each day. We also provide the most complete and concise in- vestment data. This service will bring the business and invest- ment world on to your system every day! THE MOSCOW NEWS - Here is an extraordinary opportunity to gain the Russian perspective on History and Political Science, as it happens! Each week, discover the rapid rate of change in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Discover how the perspective of seventy-five years of Communism effects the making of history today. Another extraordinary resource for your local school systems. NPTN NEWS AND SPECIAL EVENTS - We will continue to cover various interesting and occasionally offbeat events--coverage you can get nowhere else. Examples include events such as: the four month Whitbread Around-the-World Yacht Race, the Earthwinds Project--the first attempt to sail around the world in a hot air balloon, and the first attempt by an all-female team to hike across Antarctica. (This feature is not an American Cybercasting service and is included as part of your affiliation with NPTN. NOTE: New Additions: Just as this booklet was going to press, ACC announced two new overseas news additions: THE LONDON TIMES, and THE JERUSALEM POST. Both are available immediately for your systems. ELECTRONIC JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES (available via American Cybercasting Corporation) FORBES - The name says it all. Business information, and an understanding of business you can't get any where else. The Forbes insight into businesses, markets, and the economy is unpar- alleled. Give your business users essential insight into their world. THE CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW - The California Management Review (CMR) is published at the University of California - Berkeley, next to the Silicon Valley and on the edge of the Pacific Basin. CMR is uniquely positioned to keep your users in- formed of current trends in global management practices, high technology, international competition, and new ways of improving productivity. CMR focuses on three vital interests to your users; International Business, Corporate Strategy and Organization, and Business and Public Policy. CMR contributors include authors, ed- ucators, executives, and consultants such as Tom Peters, Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, Steven Wheelwright, George Lodge, Hayne Leland, Charles O'Reilly, Michael Tushman, and more. THE NATIONAL REVIEW - The Nation's "Best Conservative Magazine", The National Review provides the balancing perspective to a more liberal media. If telecomputing is about understanding the diversity and complexity of issues, the National Review pro- vides the necessary balance of perspectives. FOREIGN POLICY - Foreign Policy goes beyond the brief head- lines and superficial news coverage to the heart of major foreign policy issues. Foreign Policy gives your users the perspective to know how world events effect our lives and our futures. You'll be exposed critical issues and constructive solutions. Give your users the ability to understand political science, and foreign policy, as it happens. INSIGHT - This is the opportunity to go deeper into the news. "Insight" is the not only the name of this publication, its what this publication provides. Now your users can develop an under- standing of what really caused the news. Go beyond the cursory overview of the news, and take a closer look at what is happening with the vital issues that effect our world. Also, get a weekly look at how the Congress is voting on key issues. IMPRIMIS - A monthly newsletter of political thought and opinion. Extremely high quality. Includes essays by writers such as William Rasberry, Jack Kemp, Jeanne Kilpatrick, and William Buckley. Imprimis is produced by Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan. NOTE: New Additions: Just as this booklet was going to press ACC announced two new magazine additions: The New Republic and Highlights for Children. Both are immediately available. ELECTRONIC BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS Government Accounting Office (GAO) Reports - An experimental program whereby the General Accounting Office in Washington DC is making available a variety of its studies. They are delivered as static files within a preset menu structure. Included in the cur- rent offering is: COMPUTER SECURITY: Govt Planning Process had Limited Impact COMPUTER SECURITY: Hackers Penetrate DOD Computer Systems HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING: Industry Uses of Supercomputers and High-Speed Networks HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING: High-Speed Computer Networks in the U.S., Europe, and Japan HIGH-DEFINITION TELEVISION: Applications for this New Technology DRUG-EXPOSED INFANTS: A Generation at Risk HOME VISITING: A Promising Early Intervention Strategy for At Risk Families MEETING THE GOVERNMENT'S TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGE: Re sults of a GAO Symposium STRATEGIC DEFENSE SYSTEM: Stable Design and Adequate Testing Must Precede Decision to Deploy TRAINING STRATEGIES: Preparing Noncollege Youth for Employment in the U.S. and Foreign Countries (NOTE: Coming soon are not only more full-text reports, but a monthly GAO index of reports. This service will allow your users to monitor the "GAO wire" and via simple electronic mail, order the reports they wish to have.) The Freedom Shrine - A collection of 30 full-text documents of relevance to U.S. history. They range from the Magna Carta, to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and include such hard to find documents as "The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations." The complete list is as follows: Pre-Constitution Documents 1215 - The Magna Carta 1390 - The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations 1620 - The Mayflower Compact 1639 - The Fundamental Orders of 1639 1676 - First Thanksgiving Proclamation 1775 - The Charlotte Town Resolves 1775 - Declaration of the Causes... of Taking up Arms 1776 - The Declaration of Independence 1776 - The Virginia Declaration of Rights 1777 - The Articles of Confederation 1777 - Declaration and Resolves of the 1st Cont. Cong. 1783 - The Paris Peace Treaty 1786 - The Annapolis Convention The Constitution 1787 - The Constitutional Transmittal Letter 1787 - The Constitution of the United States 1791 - The Bill of Rights 1791 - 1971 All Amendments Post-Constitution Documents 1787 - The Northwest Ordinance 1789 - French Declaration of Rights 1793 - The Proclamation of Neutrality 1795 - The Treaty of Greenville 1796 - Washington's Farewell Address 1801 - Jefferson's First Inaugural Address 1823 - The Monroe Doctrine 1862 - The Emancipation Proclamation 1863 - The Gettysburg Address 1865 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address 1945 - German Surrender Documents 1945 - Japanese Surrender Documents 1963 - M.L. King's: "I have a dream" Speech Electronic Books - Full text of the following copyright-free books have been compiled by Project Gutenberg and are now avail- able for reference on your system. It is expected that the list will be added to at the rate of at least one book per month throughout 1992. (For added power to your electronic library, see also the description of the Thunderstone Full-Text Search Software below.) - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll - The Hunting of the Snark - Lewis Carroll - Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Peter Pan - James M. Barrie - The Federalist Papers - James Madison - The Song of Hiawatha - Henry W. Longfellow - Paradise Lost - John Milton - Aesops Fables - Aesop - Roget's Thesaurus - Philip Roget - The Life of Frederick Douglas - Frederick Douglas - O Pioneers! - Willa Cather - Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - The World Factbook - 1991 Edition - The Bible - The Koran - Book of Mormon - Doctrine and Covenants (Mormon) - Pearl of Great Price (Mormon) - Herland - Charlotte Gilman - The Oedipus Trilogy - Sophocles - Selected U.S. Census data - Zen and the Art of the Internet - Brendan Kehoe MEDICAL INFORMATION SERVICES H.O.P.E. Foundation Cancer Center - Comprehensive and up-to- the-minute information about cancer, with special emphasis on pro- viding aid to families and loved ones who are caring for individu- als in a home environment. Available are descriptions of benefits and side effects of currently used cancer treatments, details of promising new treatments as they appear, and information and sup- port on the process of bereavement. This area is sponsored and operated by the H.O.P.E. Foundation of Encino, California. SOFTWARE SERVICES FREEPORT COMMUNITY COMPUTER SOFTWARE - Developed by Case Western Reserve University, FreePortª provides simple, expandable, menu driven, campus network software for use with Unix BSD sys- tems. It is designed to be used by people with little of no knowledge of computers, yet still provide all the benefits of to- day's powerful computer based information systems. More sophisti- cated computer users may bypass some of the basic functions of FreePort in order to streamline their access. In this way, FreePortª is adaptable to users of all levels of expertise. Some of its major features include: * Usable by any asynchronous terminal or microcomputer * Completely menu driven * Multi-user chat * Network compatible electronic mail * File transfer capabilities * Highly flexible bulletin boards * Ability to gateway to other systems * Fully compatible with Usenet Newsgroups Cost: $850 - One-time fee. CIX COMMUNITY COMPUTER SOFTWARE - CIX is second generation Free-Net ª software which provides a platform on which organiza- tions can build information services. It was designed using pre- vious versions as a guide, but utilizing a new and more efficient database and user interface modifications, based on research at the University of Cincinnati, University of Connecticut, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. This in- terface has proven to be effective for users unfamiliar with com- puters; yet power users can access capabilities beyond anything else on the market. The underlying "Information Exchange" engine is written in portable C, and runs on all flavors of Unix tested thus far, in- cluding BSD 2, BSD3, SVR 3, SVR 4, Ultrix, AIX, NeXT, and SCO Xenix and Unix. CIX was designed to allow a graphical front-end on user's PCs. Some of its major features include: * Usable by any asynchronous terminal or microcomputer * Menu or command driven (users choice) * Ability to gateway to other systems * Network compatible E-Mail * Highly flexible bulletin boards * Capture information from multiple places and download all at once * Macro Programming Language * Public or private file stores (virtual diskettes) * Binary "enclosures" in public and private messages * Command stacking and non-destructive type-ahead * "sysop" controlled access to areas (closed user groups) * File transfer capabilities Cost: $100 per simultaneous user (maximum user load), per year, with a 10 line minimum. THUNDERSTONEª FULL-TEXT SEARCH SOFTWARE - Search software from Thunderstoneª Software is available for all American Cybercasting information products. Thunderstone Search Software is an advanced text retrieval software, which allows users the flexibility to search and retrieve information from any ASCII text, even when embedded with other types of data. Thunderstone Software utilizes a unique combination of search algorithms, which allow the user unparalleled capability to search and retrieve in- telligently correlated responses, to the search queries you enter. Concept searches may be made without any preprocessing or knowledge engineering of files being required. No indexing, look- up tables, or otherwise redundant files are required, wasting your systems memory or your time. Thunderstone Software is available for Unix, DOS, and some MVS environments. Thunderstone includes the following features: * Question parser which automatically extracts important words and phrases from the natural language query. * Automatic word expansion from designated root words, utilizing a large association matrix approximating a well versed English language vocabulary. * A numeric pattern matcher to locate quantities or ranges, recognizing numbers in text in almost any form that they might occur. * Ability to easily "cut and paste" customized report files of your own design. Thunderstone Software also provides many other features and capabilities unavailable with other search software.