By D/Lt Wayne Spivak, JN
Computer Systems Committee
Why have the Internet and USPS become intertwined? Aren't we just a boating organization? Why is there so much commotion about the Internet anyway?
The answer is all over your boat. Your radio and certainly your cellular phone are computers of sorts. So are your loran and GPS. Ever look at your radar? It too uses computer programs and other computer-type elements. Today, with the ability to interface this equipment, computers (and I mean real computers like those in your home or office) are finding their way to your bridge or nav-station.
The Internet is also finding its way to those onboard computers. On the high seas, you can use your Internet connection to reach landlubbers (cheaper than any other ship-to-shore method) and you can also download the latest weather forecasts. You can also reach out and touch vast stores of information, from medical and drug knowledge to how to fix a clogged head.But how did USPS get started on the Internet? First you have to understand how the Internet got started.
In October 1962, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conceived the Internet concept. In 1965, that dream became reality when a TX-2 computer in Massachusetts was connected to a Q-32 computer in California over a telephone line, using a low-speed dial-up circuit. This event created the first (however small) wide-area computer network, resulting in ARPANET, the first Internet network.
By the end of 1969, four host computers were on the Internet. When 1985 rolled around, the Internet was well established in academia and the military. Other communities were beginning to use it for daily communications. Electronic mail, e-mail, was the mainstay of this early Internet.
Prior to 1990, the Internet was difficult to use, since not all computer host systems or workstations could communicate with each other. With the exception of BITNET (an academic network) and USENET (newsgroups) these early networks, including ARPANET, were built for a single purpose: service to the restricted halls of academia and the military. Many systems, including e-mail, were not compatible with each other. This meant that people at UCLA were not always able to use the information on the host computer at MIT.
In 1994, a National Research Council report commissioned by the National Science Foundation (NSF), "Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond," was released. This report became the blueprint for the information superhighway's evolution. It anticipated the critical issues of intellectual property rights, ethics, pricing, education, architecture and regulation for the Internet.
In April 1995, the Internet was privatized by the NSF, essentially opening it to commercial interests.
In 1994, USPS launched its Internet involvement. Our first foray was a low-level mailing distribution list that was announced on the rec.boats newsgroup, or bulletin board.
In the early days, there were a dozen or so people on the mailing list. There weren't many USPS members on the Internet then. In fact, there weren't many people on the Internet, period; much of it was still academically motivated.
Members from both USPS and the Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons joined our e-mail distribution list in droves. Soon, we had 30 members on this list. Topics ranged from membership and plotting tools to uniforms and change of watch events. Today, we still discuss some of the same topics.
As word of the mailing list grew and membership increased, the need arose for a genuine e-mail list. The first real mailing list, called "power-squadrons," started with help from Netcom, a national Internet service provider. The power-squadron mailing list's home eventually moved to ronin.com, where it resided for more than a year. In 1997, USPS secured its own domain name, USPS.ORG, and we changed the mailing list address to PSML@sb.usps.org.
Over these last few years, our e-mail server has changed from UNIX to Windows NT and then back to UNIX. Except for some minor ancillary commands, joining and leaving the mailing list has been consistent. In fact, we added an automated Web subscription process about a year ago! (See http://www.usps.org/member)
This list, which began with about a dozen people, now has more than 400 people on both the individual message and the digested versions. Some days, more than 40 messages are exchanged between list members publicly, and there is no way of knowing how many privately.
Just as we can't count the number of private e-mail exchanges, we can't count the vast number of introductions made, friendships built and information provided during these past few years. E-mail has had a dramatic impact on USPS operations.
Quite a few districts have e-mail mailing lists, and there is even one squadron with its own list. Several national committees have created or are in the process of creating lists. In addition to the PSML list, we also have the Cooperative Charting list. Soon, all national committees will have their own internal mailing lists and general e-mail addresses.
While we were at ronin.com, the first USPS website was put online. Since USPS did not have its own domain name, like USPS.ORG, our website was found by using this URL (uniform resource locator, or Internet address): http://www.ronin.com/USPS. That original website is for the most part gone, having been changed due to growth in both the volume and the size of what is presented.
Now many districts and local squadrons have their own websites. Many of those sites are housed at http://www.sb.usps.org. A complete listing of all squadron and district websites can be found on the official USPS website at http://www.usps.org.
National committees are beginning to create their own websites, to be linked off the USPS members-only pages. Located at http://www.usps.org/member, these pages hold a wealth of information for USPS members. You can find the latest forms, the Port Captain's Roster, programs to assist you in passing JN or N, and the Navigation Committee's website. The Ship's Store and the USPS Insurance program are also represented. This is one place every USPS member should visit in boating cyberspace.
The Computer Systems Committee has implemented many other Internet-related services for the benefit of USPS and CPS members. In future articles, ComSysCom will discuss these free services available exclusively to USPS members.
In USPS, as in many businesses today, there is considerable debate about where we are going with the Internet. We do know that USPS, like most businesses, must become more involved with the Internet.
Communication is the key to any business or organization. Cost-effective, affordable communication is one of the hallmarks of e-mail. It is much more productive to answer e-mail than traditional mail, known on the Internet as "snail mail."
You can find information faster and easier through a well-designed and constructed website than through archaic menu systems or bizarre commands typed on a computer screen. Empowering members to find their own answers frees the organization of an unnecessary burden, which in turns lowers costs.
For members, using websites will keep them informed of what is happening on the national level. The ability to interface with the national database through the Internet will greatly reduce the cost and time it takes to access information, such as rosters and member histories.
To make it easier for our membership to understand the changes in our own organization and the business world in general, the Computer Systems Committee will publish a series of articles in THE ENSIGN about the tools available on the Internet. Then, we will suggest some of the ways USPS can use them.
Future topics will include a deeper discussion on e-mail, newsgroups and inter-relay chat. We will also discuss how the Web has the ability to interact with our national database, process dues, take orders from the Ship's Store and do a whole host of customer-based services.
Many of the aforementioned items are future value-added services. However, as technology progresses, the cost of these technological advances will decrease and they will become a reality for USPS.
*For a complete discussion on the history of the Internet, either point your Web browser to http://www.isoc.org or download the USPS Internet help file located at ftp://sb.usps.org/pub/psml/usps95.hlp.