on March 2, 1997

Sponsored by Writers on the Net.
Taught by Charles Deemer, webmaster of the Screenwriters & Playwrights Home Page.
Fee is $50.
Register for class. Next class begins April 7, 1997.

Week 1: Basic Tools

Cyberspace can be overwhelming, so your first job is to learn how to get around and to find what you want. Next, you need to know how to save and store the information of special value to you.

• Searching the net
  • Search tools
  • .
  • Find a person or business.
  • Find a location (interactive atlas shows location on map).
• Organizing information
  • ClipMate, a powerful copy/paste utility. Download ClipMate.
• Tips and tricks
  • Lynx, a powerful text-only browser.
  • Shareware programs of all kinds to make your work easier.
  • Writing software.
  • Telnet software. Telnet hooks 2 computers together and is a common tool for accessing libraries and chat sites. My "virtual office" site has links to two standard telnet programs.

Week 2: The Email family

Email is at the foundation of much of your online activity. Here we will explore special uses of email for writers.

• Accessing email
  • Common mail programs. You need email software; links to most popular programs.
  • Yahoo! Email references to software and more.
• Mailing lists for writers.
  These can work in several ways: an email list for discussion or an email subscription to a newsletter. Both are listed below. You also can create your own mailing list in your email software and thereby create an online "list" of writing friends, so that all get the message when you mail it to the list you create.
  • Major lists of interest to writers:
    • Literature lists.
    • Movies lists.
    • Theater lists.
    • Humanities lists.
    • Writing Lists (subscription directions):
      • Fiction Writers Workshop: listserv@psuvm.psu.edu, subscribe fiction
      • Writers Mailing List: listserv@mitvma.mit.edu, subscribe WRITERS
      • Childrens-Writing Mailing List: majordomo@lists.mindspring.com, subscribe childrens-writing
      • Nonfiction Writers Workshop: listserv@american.edu, subscribe nfictn-l
      • Poetry List: listserv@gonzaga.edu, subscribe poetry
      • Screenwriting Discussion List: listserv@tamvm1.bitnet, subscribe scrnwrit
  • Liszt Directory of E-Mail Discussion Groups.
  • Directory of Scholarly and Professional E-Conferences. A search for "writing" lists 32 items.
• Creating an online writing workshop
  There are several ways to create an online workshop. If you and some friends want to do this, the easiest way is to create a mailing list for your group in your email software. If you want to create a "public" workshop, where others ("strangers") can join, then creating a "listserv" or "majordomo" list is the way to go. This involves jumping through a couple of hoops: (1) having a server that can administer the list technically, or finding a host that can; (2) knowing enough to run the list. If you're lucky, your provider can host a mailing list and show you how to set one up. If not, both questions are addressed in the documents below.
  • LISTSERV Owner's Manual (390K).
  • LISTSERV User's Guide (145K).
  • Majordomo List Owner's Guide.
    Or you can use a commercial mailing list server:
  • Lyris, an email list server.

  You also can conduct writers workshops in chat rooms. See below.

• Marketing
  • Media Email Addresses of periodicals accepting queries and submissions by email, an international directory.
  • The Writers Marketboard strives to be one-stop site for marketing. New, has a lot of growing to do, but a great idea.
  • Internet Directory of Literary Agents, restricted to those who do not charge reading fees.
• Taking and teaching online classes
  • Online writing classes.
• Email tricks
  • Accessing WWW via telnet or email.

Week 3: The Newsgroups family

There must be a newsgroup dedicated to any subject you can think of. You'll find groups you visit regulary and others you use for special needs. The advantage of newsgroups over mailing lists is that you go to the news, the news doesn't come to you (usually in overwhelming numbers). Some folks consider this a disadvantage, however.

• Accessing newsgroups
  There are several ways to access a newsgroup. There are special newsreaders. For example, I access a group of half-a-dozen newsgroups daily, using "tin" in Unix. You also can access newsgroups with a late version of Explorer or Netscape browsers, by using the "news:name.name" URL. There also are websites that help you access newsgroups. Since these usually have search engines attached to them, most are listed in the next section.
  
  • Yahoo! Reviews of News Readers.
  • Usenet Info Center Launch Pad.
  • This "web newsgroup reader" is limited by its selection of available newsgroups: FeedMe, world's easiest newsreader.
  • Anchorman, a hierarchical news reader. Very nice, let's you read newsgroups via web, user friendly.
  • Go to shareware.com and do a search for "news reader." My search, using windows platform, resulted in 13 different news readers available for download.
• Finding the right newsgroup
  It has become relatively easy to find newsgroups relating to special subject matter. Good places to begin are:
  • Deja News
  • The Daily News.
  • tile.net/news, a directory of newsgroups.
  • Newsgroups on the Net, a comprehensive guide.
• Using newsgroups for research
  First, when you become active on a newsgroup you need to be aware of "newsgroup netiquette" (see newsgroup rules). Next, be aware that newgroups are filled with "opinions"; take everything with a grain of salt. On newsgroups, people can pose, spread rumors, lie, scam, spam, flame and otherwise behave like childish neanderthals. At the same time, some very knowledgeable people frequent newgroups, from whom you can get valuable professional information. Unfortunately the only way to tell the difference is to spend time and energy becoming familiar with a particular newsgroup, where the personalities and backgrounds of regulars eventually will become apparent.
  Most research needs are met on the web or at libraries, not newsgroups (see next section; also see how to telnet to libraries). However, there are important exceptions to this. My recent play Who Forgives? is about a recovering sex offender and I did much of my research on an anonymous newsgroup for offenders, gaining invaluable information and insights.
• Networking
  Newsgroups provide another opportunity to network with people of similar interests. This happens the same way as with email lists and takes some time and experience on the newsgroup to happen.
• Newsgroup options
  Every news reader should have an option that permits you to list which newsgroups are "active" on the reader. "tin", for example, opens a simple list of the newsgroups I check daily, with new messages since my last visit active. This kind of selection is the most useful option available to you.
  Another option permits "filtering" of messages. If, for example, you are tired of a long-winded participant, your news reader can filter his messages out of your active list.
  You also should learn how to do your own filtering via subject-line content, although often content subjects change without the line content changing.
• Starting your own newsgroup
  • How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup.
  • How to Start a Newsgroup.
  • HyperNews is a tool with which you can organize and have your own "newsgroup like" discussions.

Week 4: The Web family

More and more, the World Wide Web is the Internet, the foundation from which all other activity can be launched. We'll look at special sites of interest to writers.

• Accessing the Web
  • Intro to the World Wide Web, an excellent introduction to cyberspace by Kevin Hughes.
  • Yahoo! index to broswers. Know thy browser! It is amazing how many different kinds of browsers are in use, despite the overwhelming popularity of the major two (Netscape and Explorer). I prefer Explorer for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I resent Netscape's corporate arrogance in changing the default color of my website. If I wanted white, I would have made it white! I try to be as friendly to as many browsers as possible, including text-only browsers. The safest way to do this is to use generic gray backgrounds. Generic gray is good enough for Yahoo! and it's good enough for me.
    Here are guides to the major browsers:
    • Microsoft Internet Explorer.
    • Netscape.
    • Lynx.
• Websites for writers
  • General writing resources from my website.
• Keeping current
  Keeping current of what's new on the web can be a full-time job. You need to find shortcuts to the areas that interest you. Two main resources are:
  • Yahoo! What's New?
  • What's New Too?
• Using the web for research
  The web has become the primary research area in cyberspace (becoming more popular than gopherspace a couple years ago). Search tools are so powerful now, these are the vehicles with which to begin your research. Other basic tools:
  • WWW Virtual Library, general index.
  • WWW Libraries (frames).
  • Library of Congress.
  • Yahoo! Index.
  • Internet Public Library.
• The web goes multimedia: applications for writers.
  Multimedia resources on the web comprise a recent and very exciting development. As a screenwriter, I look forward to the time when original feature movies are shot digitally and delivered from the web to home entertainment screens, a process that makes every filmmaker her own distributor and which could hugely expand the viability of independent markets.
  Here are some highlights and places to begin your exploration:
  • Audio
    • RealAudio, which now includes a RealVideo component. NPR and many other programs are archived in RealAudio. Live events, etc.
      • AudioNet, live broadcasts.
      • Timecast, directory of live events for RealAudio and RealVideo.
  • Video
    • VDOLive.
    • RealVideo.

Week 5: The Chat family

I find live chat one of the more exciting developments in cyberspace. We'll explore chat alternatives for writers

• IRC
  Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was the first and remains one of the basic ways to chat in real time on the Internet. Its advantage is that even very lowend users can take advantage of it - you can connect to IRC with an old XT, a 1200 baud modem, and a shell account to the net, chatting away with the best of them. Its disadvantages are its large size and tendency to "net split" but IRC remains a very popular chatting protocol. Today several independent "nets" are included under the umbrella of IRC, the most popular being EFnet (the original) and DALnet. Note that these two "nets" do not talk to one another (the channel #writers on EFnet is not the channel #writers on DALnet). Windows and Mac software make IRC easier for those not comfortable with entering Unix commands.
  • IRC FAQ
  • More IRC intro stuff
  • IRC software:
    • mIRC for windows.
    • Homer for Mac.
• MOOs
  Another way to chat is in environments in which text can be manipulated like objects, which environments are called MUDs, MOOs, MUSHes and more. Think of a MUD as a "multi-user dimension" and a MOO as an "object oriented" MUD. Thus, in my virtual office at a MOO, I can "create" a blackboard (a text object) and I can write on it and you can read it. So much more than chatting can happen - in a MOO, we can actually manipulate objects (text-defined) and create a virtual world of text. This, too, can get complicated, but the links below can get you started in exploring this world. (Note: most MOOs are reached by telneting.)
  • MUD Starter Kit.
  • MOO Quickstart.
  • CWRL MUSH and MOO Page, good links to resources.
  • Telnet software: go to download links, at bottom of virtual office page.
• Web chat
  The fastest growing chat environment is on the web. Some of the ways this is done are illustrated by the links below.
  • Green Room Chat, the chat room I started for screenwriters and playwrights.
  • The Ultima Online Chat Zone
  • COW, conferencing on the web (from San Francisco State University)
  • Open24 Chat
  • Conferencing on the Web, a guide to software.
  • EWGIE, easy web group interaction enabler.
  • JavaTalk
• Powwow for Windows
  This is a very friendly chat program, limited to 7 users at once but supports voice and chalkboard and group web surfing. Powwow Home Page.
• A tour of chat options:

Week 6: The Online Writer

What part will cyberspace play in your writing career? You have many options.

• Creating an online strategy
• Using time efficiently
• Should you have your own website?
• Future possibilities

Class Schedule:

• Week 1: Feb. 3, 1997
• Week 2: Feb 10
• Week 3: Feb 17
• Week 4: Feb 24
• Week 5: Mar 3
• Week 6: Mar 10

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