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TNO -- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is The Network Observer? > TNO is a free on-line newsletter. It appeared monthly from January 1994 to > July 1996. It probably won't come back. Nonetheless I'll discuss it in the > present tense below. > > Every issue includes a few short articles, either by me or by guest authors, > plus three regular departments: the wish list, which discusses a potential > application of advanced computing technology; this month's recommendations, > usually short book reviews; and follow-up, which summarizes on-line discussion > of previous issues and offers pointers to useful net resources that I've > discovered in the last month.
Who are you? > I'm Phil Agre. I edit TNO. Here's my home page.
What is TNO about? > TNO is about networks and democracy. By "networks" I mean to include both > computer networks, like the Internet, and social networks of all kinds. > By "democracy" I mean people getting together and deciding how to run > their lives. I think that democracy is a good thing. I am concerned that > democratic values are eroding, at least in my own country, and TNO is my own > small contribution to the reinvention of democracy in a new technological > world.
How many people read TNO? > It's hard to say. About 3800 people get it from the Red Rock Eater. Many > readers get it indirectly from people who have forwarded particular issues > or articles to their friends or mailing lists. It also depends what you > mean by "read". A lot of people skim it. If I had to guess I'd say its > halfways-serious readership is maybe ten thousand.
Who writes the unsigned articles? > I do.
How much time does it take? > I would say that it takes less than a day a month to edit TNO, mostly in bits > and pieces as ideas for each month's issue accumulate. Then it takes a couple > of hours, usually on a weekend, to get the formatting straight and proofread > everything. It's worth it, though, since it's an efficient way of getting > some ideas out to a moderately large audience (by academic standards anyway) > without having to go through a magazine editor.
Do you welcome press releases? > Absolutely not.
I want to clip out a single article from TNO and send it along to a mailing list. Is that okay? > If you really need to. Please make sure you keep the copyright and contact > information at the bottom of the issue.
Do you ever edit the back issues? > Yes. I don't get paid for running TNO, so the version that goes out on the > net is sometimes a little rough. I go back and edit the rough parts later on. > As a result, I'd much prefer that you make a link to the TNO web pages rather > than copying TNO issues into your own pages.
Is TNO officially sponsored by anyone? > No. The opinions expressed in TNO are solely those of the editor, or of the > guest authors whose names are signed to their articles. They do not reflect > the policies of the University of California or any other organization.
I want to run an on-line newsletter. What advice do you have for me? > I've presented some rough ideas on the subject in TNO 2(3).
Have you thought of turning TNO into a commercial newsletter? > Sure. But it would be an enormous hassle. The only way to make real money > at such a thing is to run it like an industry newsletter, charging a hundred > corporate subscribers each hundreds of dollars a year. That would defeat > much of the purpose of the newsletter, and I expect I would have to change > the format and content dramatically to reach that kind of market anyway. > So for the foreseeable future I'll just continue doing it for other reasons > than money.
Why is the Web version of TNO so badly designed, with nothing but preformatted text? > TNO reaches more people by e-mail in ASCII form than through the Web pages, > and it would take a lot of work to convert the ASCII form into fancy Web > pages. Someday in my abundant spare time I will give the TNO Web pages a > distinctive graphical design. I don't think that the current version is > any harder to read than any other Web-based newsletter; it just doesn't look > as cool. I can live with that.