RFC 1746

RFC 1746: Ways to Define User Expectations 💖

Okay bestie, the title block is giving very formal, so here's the tea ☕ This is RFC 1746, called Ways to Define User Expectations, from the Network Working Group. It was written by Bill Manning of ISI and Don Perkins of Houston ISD. It's in the Informational category and dated December 1994. The title block doesn't say it obsoletes or updates anything 🦋

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Status of this Memo 📜

So this memo is giving info for the Internet community 🌸 It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited, so share it with everyone 💅

Abstract 🎀

This paper covers the basic fundamentals that MUST be understood when someone defines, interprets, or implements ways to control user expectations on or over the Internet 🧠

1. Background ✨

User agreements are a form of acceptable use policy (AUP), and they're an implicit part of internetworking 🫶 They put parameters on user expectations, and they define the desired and expected behaviour of everyone who participates. Everyone has one, whether it's published or not 👀 This applies to networks that provide transit paths for other networks, to end sites, and to the individual users who use the systems.

Understanding an AUP better, and knowing how to write one, is getting more important as the global net pulls in new environments like K12 schools and real-time systems 🌈 AUPs are also used to determine pricing, customer base, type and quality of service metrics, and a whole host of other provider services 💖

2. Components of an Agreement 🧩

When you define your agreement, there are three areas that MUST be addressed 💅 They are where you get service from, who your peers are, and whom you provide service to. A good understanding of these concepts will make or break the policies you come up with 💀

2.1 Where you get service from 🧚

Each entity gets its service from one or more other providers. That's either a level three service, like IP transit, or a level two service, like circuits. The provider usually has a policy in the form of an agreement or contract that spells out the terms and conditions of use. That forms the basis for the kinds of service offerings you can provide as an entity 🎀 If you get service from several providers, all of them need to be considered when you form your policy.

2.2 Who your peers are 🦋

Are your policies consistent with the ones your peers offer? In lots of cases, forming your policy is what defines who your peers are 👯‍♀️ It's important to clearly identify which areas you want to reach and the community you want to be a contributing, productive part of. Once that's clear, write your policies along those lines ✨

2.3 Who you provide service to 🍓

It is REQUIRED that you inform the people who use your services exactly what your policies are 🫶 Without that info, it'll be almost impossible for them to tell what to expect from your service offering. And without a clear policy, litigation may ensue 😭 So it's important to reflect community standards when you create your policy 🌸

3. Some Issues to consider 🔍

IP provided services can be complex, because they cover both information and communication 🌐 When you write policy, it's critical that it provides for security and access to information and communication, while making sure resource use doesn't overburden the system's capabilities. Those conflicting demands MUST be analyzed, and a synthesis has to be reached 🧠 This hints at a fourth component of an AUP: it needs a method to extract compliance. That's so site specific that the document won't try to analyze it further here 🙈

Some items that SHOULD be considered in the formation of policy are:

• privacy
• freedom of expression
• safety
• plagiarism
• indemnification
• expected behaviours
• morals & ethics
• legal constraints
• harassment
• resource utilization
• targeted areas of interest
• remedies and recourse

This list is not exhaustive, though. This SHOULD NOT be considered as an exhaustive list, but as pointers for the types of things to think about when policy is formed 💖

4. Security Considerations 🔒

Security and Liability issues are not discussed in this memo. Be warned, bestie: if you're writing policy, these topics are on you to handle, and this document won't do it for you ⚠️

5. Summary 🌟

User Agreements are here to stay 💅 As the interconnected mesh of networks grows, the choices presented to end-users mean that provider and user expectations have to be clearly presented. Using these guidelines will help create a clearer, better defined environment for everyone 🫶

Authors' Addresses 🏠

   Bill Manning
   USC/Information Sciences Institute
   4676 Admiralty Way
   Marina del Rey, CA 90292

   Phone: 822-1511
   EMail: bmanning@isi.edu


   Don Perkins
   Instructional Media Services
   Houston Independent School District
   3830 Richmond
   Houston, TX 77027

   EMail: dperkins@tenet.edu

Example 📚

For more on some acceptable use policies, check out the following materials archived in Armadillo--The Texas Studies Gopher 🦋

   Name=Acceptable and Unacceptable Use of Net Resources (K12)
   Type=1
   Host=chico.rice.edu
   Port=1170
   Path=1/More/Acceptable

Or you can go to http://chico.rice.edu/armadillo 🌈

If those resources aren't available to you, you MAY want to review the attached policy and justification that an NSF sponsored project on K12 networking is using. It shows the thinking process and the actual Agreement that was worked out for that project 🧠✨

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The Internetworked School: A Policy for the Future* 🏫

Barry J. Fishman and Roy D. Pea School of Education and Social Policy Northwestern University

Note: The CoVis Network Use Policy itself appears as an appendix to this article 📎

Introduction 🌸

The next five years are going to radically change the ways schools relate to the world around them 🌍 Global computer networks, which have long been the exclusive domain of higher education and private industry, are linking up to primary and secondary schools 🤯 The Internet is a network made up of many smaller contributing networks, and it's a powerful educational resource unlike anything that came before it. Its potential for education grows with every new connection 💖

For the first time ever, schoolchildren have the means for simple, direct contact with millions of adults, in a forum that masks their physical youth and presents them as virtual equals 😳 But just like the new kid at school has to learn new social codes and rituals to fit in, schools MUST learn some of the practices and etiquette of the Internet 🎀 Of course, the established denizens of the Internet will soon have some adjusting to do too, with thousands (or millions) of new kids knocking electronically at their doors 🙈 Since the Internet was not designed with children in mind, many potentially difficult issues MUST be discussed by both the education and the Internet communities 🫶

This article presents a framework for thinking about some of the issues that are essential to making the first encounter between schools and the Internet successful ✨ It also presents an excerpt of a policy that embodies our approach to resolving those issues 💅

Expanding Access, Expanding Horizons 🚀

For roughly the past decade, schools have increasingly taken part in specialized computer networks like the NGS/TERC Kidsnetwork, the Intercultural Learning Network, and FidoNet, as well as for-profit services like CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy 💻 Most of these projects ran on networks where teachers' or students' messages couldn't be read by anyone beyond a predetermined audience of other students and teachers 🔐 Even so, these projects let students and teachers talk with their peers in faraway places, and they pioneered some pedagogical uses of networks for computer-mediated communication and collaborative project work that will carry over to the Internet 🦋

Internetworking, though, goes beyond proprietary systems by joining a vast number of distinct networks into one large network, the Internet 🌐 As individual schools and bulletin boards get connected to the Internet, the number of people and services within easy reach grows exponentially 📈 By one estimate, there are currently 19 million users of the Internet, with an annual growth rate approaching 80 percent 😱 Some of the Internet's most powerful communication tools are specifically designed so that any of these millions of people could join any conversation 🍓 The network's true power comes from the synergy of many dispersed minds working together to solve problems and discuss issues, and there's very little hierarchy or control over the discourse 👑

Schools shifting to internetworking systems involves critical technological as well as pedagogical issues 🛠️ It requires changing the school computing paradigm from centralized computing to distributed client-server systems, which brings an administrative change in the nature of school computing. Lots of schools that already have some kind of network access only give accounts to teachers or administrators. Internetworking is fundamentally different, because it gives accounts, access, and therefore control directly to students 🧚

There are plenty of arguments for the pedagogical benefits of school internetworking. But what about the risks? What safety, liability, and, above all, educational concerns MUST be addressed before schools are ready to tap into the Internet? 🤔 This policy isn't meant to be a document that sets limitations or restrictions. It's designed to facilitate and set guidelines for exploring and using the Internet as a tool for learning 🌈 The policy was written with the purpose and goals of the Internet as a background: support for open research and education in and among research and instructional institutions 💜 The context for the policy came from the specific needs of a growing community of learners made up of students, teachers, scientists, and researchers 🧠 The networked environment MUST support collaboration and cooperation. Proper frameworks to support network navigation and information searching MUST be established 🫶 And because networks will keep being a scarce educational resource for the foreseeable future, the policy also provides guidelines for maximizing the educational cost-benefit ratio for teachers and students ✨

Testbed for Change--The CoVis Project ✨

okay bestie, our whole framework for thinking about internetworking issues is a project happening at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University 🎓. It's called the Learning Through Collaborative Visualization Project, aka CoVis, and it's trying to totally reconceptualize and reconfigure high school science education 🔬💖. CoVis is a networking testbed funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) 💅. The goal is to enable project-based approaches to science by using low- and medium-bandwidth networks to put students in direct contact with practicing scientists and scientific tools 🧪. And the vibe is that we're working with the types of network connections we believe will be common in schools in the near future 🔮.

In the first phase, we're working with two Chicago-area schools, Evanston Township High School in Evanston and New Trier High School in Winnetka 🏫. CoVis is deployed in 12 classes at the two high schools, involving three teachers at each school 👩‍🏫. Approximately 300 students are involved: 100 freshmen, 100 sophomores and juniors, and 100 seniors, all enrolled in either earth science or environmental science classes 🌎🌱. Each classroom has six Macintosh Quadra computers with audio/video conferencing units, linked to an internal ethernet 🖥️. That ethernet is linked to Northwestern's ethernet by a primary-rate Integrated Services Digital Network bridge for telecommunications using the public-switched network 🔌. Extra computers are available for Internet use in computer labs at each school 💻.

The CoVis Network Community is made up of students and teachers in CoVis classes, scientists who want to collaborate on CoVis student projects, the researchers running the CoVis project, and other interested parties who get special accounts 🫶. In the CoVis classroom, each student gets an account that makes them a "full" member of the Internet community 🦋. This means two things:

• Each student has access to all Internet services with minimal mediation by teachers or other adults.
• Anybody with an Internet account can contact the students directly, again without mediation 👀.

In addition to the standard Internet resources, which include electronic mail, listservs, Usenet news discussion groups, Telnet, gopher, and file transfer, CoVis lets students communicate with peers and scientists via video and audio conference tools and remote screen-sharing technology for synchronous collaborative work 📹. Therefore, the CoVis Network Use Policy goes beyond the needs of the typical low-bandwidth internetworked school 🌈.

As an NSF testbed, CoVis has the job of developing new frameworks for the use of internetworking 🧠. To figure out the tricky issues of networking, we look at other projects--Bolt Beranek and Newman's work with the Ralph Bunche computer-minischool in New York; AT&T's Learning Circles; and TERC's LabNet project--and at analogous situations already happening in schools 🔍. So our focus lands on developing a policy that sets ground rules for the students who'll be introduced to the Internet 📜.

The Need for a Proactive Policy

Exciting or revolutionary educational programs too often get derailed 😭. In the 1970s, Jerome Bruner's curriculum Man: A Course of Study (MACOS) was at the center of a political and ideological firestorm that stopped it from being implemented in many schools 🔥. The MACOS developers taught us that it makes sense to spend time at the start of a project figuring out what challenges might come up for an educational innovation, so you can avoid, preempt, or co-opt them 🧚.

In March 1993, the Communications Policy Forum, a nonpartisan group of telecommunications stakeholders convened by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, met on the issues of Internet services for the K-12 educational community 🗓️. The forum concluded that services should be provided only to schools that would indemnify the service providers 🛡️. It also recommended that a warning statement be developed to advise schools of the presence of materials on the Internet that may be deemed inappropriate for minors 🚨.

We believe that it is not enough to devise a policy designed to protect schools and service providers, although our policy also speaks to those roles 🙅‍♀️. In this policy designed to guide students through some of the social complexity presented by the Internet, we created guidelines to alert novice users of established expectations and practices 📖. Because the Internet is somewhat anarchic in its daily commerce, it is necessary to define a safe local space, or identity, for a school network where students can feel like members of a supportive community 🏠. The goal of establishing the boundaries of our own community forms the framework of our policy 🌸.

Issues and Analogies ✨

okay so the issues that come with internetworking? not new 🙄. schools have been arguing about stuff like this forever, from creation science to dress codes 💅. these worries keep popping back up with networked material that some parents, teachers, or students might find objectionable, pornographic, or otherwise inappropriate. the amount of that stuff is actually small, but its mere presence gets so much media attention 📺. like this lead-in to a story about graphic material you can retrieve through the Internet, published in the Houston Chronicle back in 1990:

"Westbury High School student Jeff Noxon's homework was rudely interrupted recently when he stumbled across the world's most sophisticated pornography ring....It was supported by taxes and brought into town by the brightest lights of higher education."

some people are shook by that, but another take is: a high schooler used a valuable resource the local university provides, and chose to look at stuff that many people (including regular Internet users) find objectionable 🤔. bestie, educators need to get this: as a byproduct of introducing internetworking, schools likely will have to justify student use of network resources to a public that does not understand the medium or its utility to education 🎓. so by looking at analogous situations and applying them to our network use policy, we think it's possible to build frameworks for responding to these challenges 🧩. we found several significant analogies, and honestly they're giving main character energy 👑.

American Library Association (ALA). this is the most striking and informative analogy for information access issues 📚. it's not farfetched to think of the Internet, at least in part, as a vast digital library. the electronic database and search tools it uses are quickly becoming part of new school media centers, and lots of public and school libraries are starting to offer some kind of network access to their patrons. the ALA documents say, "Attempts to restrict access to library materials violate the basic tenets of the Library Bill of Rights." but they add that what goes into the library collection should be chosen thoughtfully and with an eye toward instructional goals 🎯. school librarians are supposed to build collections that "are consistent with the philosophy, goals, and objectives of the school district," and they must "resist efforts by individuals to define what is appropriate for all students or teachers to read, view, or hear." so tools used to access the network must be designed to direct access to materials that support curricular concerns too. the interface to the network basically IS the library collection 🗂️. in a school network policy, the "intent of the collection" should be clearly reflected in a statement of purpose for the network.

the ALA also speaks directly to children's access, and opposes attempts to limit access based on a library user's age 🧒. "Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents--and only parents--have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children--and only their children--to library resources," it states.

we in the CoVis Project have some technological ability to restrict what's in our Internet "collection," but it's basically impossible to block students from reaching materials we never saw coming, and keep them as full members of the Internet community 🫠. so the Internet is fundamentally different from a relatively static library collection. still, following the ALA's lead, we believe the precise limits on students' access can't be formalized by school policy. instead, it's the students' responsibility to follow the standards set by their parents 🏠.

American Society for Information Science (ASIS). the ASIS code of ethics is another helpful analogy, this one about professionals' responsibilities to both individuals and society 💼. when it comes to individuals, information professionals--a label we think should be applied to teachers--must work to "protect each information user's and provider's right to privacy and confidentiality" and "respect an information provider's proprietary rights." when it comes to society, information professionals should "serve the legitimate information needs of a large and complex society while at the same time being mindful of [the] individual's rights." they also should "resist efforts to censor publications."

the ASIS code also gets into email privacy 📬. we believe students and teachers must feel totally certain their communications are private. in lots of email systems schools use right now, the teacher has to act as the middleman between the school and the outside world. but when students are "full" members of the Internet, mail goes straight to the outside world with no human in the middle. as a rule, those communications should be private, and the network policy must spell out any reasons teachers or researchers would have to access message content. users must be made aware of the times and circumstances under which private mail may be monitored 👀.

Prodigy. email privacy seems pretty straightforward, since it's basically like U.S. mail 📮. but what about network bulletin boards or Internet newsgroups? posting in those public exchanges might raise freedom of expression questions among students and other network users, but no more than in any other public forum 🗣️.

one approach to this was described in the Wall Street Journal's technology supplement of November 15, 1993. Prodigy, a dial-up bulletin-board service jointly owned by IBM and Sears, has a strict editorial policy for both its public forums and its members' private email exchanges 🚫. it employs editors who screen every message before it's posted, sometimes delaying posting by up to 40 hours. it also uses special software to screen messages for what it deems objectionable language. the result is a lowest-common-denominator approach to what counts as acceptable or unacceptable material 😬.

but that approach undervalues the maturity of Prodigy's users 🙅‍♀️. in the CoVis classroom, we want to build students' maturity, and to learn these lessons, they have to feel like their message content is under their own control 🌱. so we're very clear about the use of offensive, obscene, or inflammatory language on the network. students in CoVis aren't blindsided by this, since their local school codes of conduct include the same warnings 📋. offensive messages posted by students are not ejected from the network. however, students can lose their network privileges if they post them (a significant disincentive for CoVis students 😳), and they're encouraged to post a retraction or apology once they understand why their message was a problem. these interventions only happen when another user complains, not as part of an explicit editorial policy.

School Conduct Codes. every school has a code of conduct that lays out appropriate behavior, spells out rights, and sets expectations for students 📖. since the CoVis Network is used as part of a school activity, the school's code of conduct applies to network activities too. so we think the network use policy should be an extension of the school's policies 🫶. a big part of writing the CoVis Network use policy was reading the participating high schools' codes of conduct super closely 🔍. for example, one of our high schools has special rules against vandalism of computer equipment and unauthorized access to information. those rules cover important concepts like computer piracy, hacking, and other tampering with hardware or software 🛠️. both CoVis schools have codes warning students that harassing or abusive language is unacceptable, and so is obscenity. at the same time, both high schools really value students' right to freedom of expression, and they spell out the details of that right pretty thoroughly 🗽.

Field Trips. all the rules that apply to student conduct at school also apply when students are off campus on field trips 🚌. the Internet opens up tons of virtual field trips to faraway places, and CoVis adds a whole new twist with full audio and video connections to remote locations 🎥. students in the CoVis community will be able to "visit" the Exploratorium in San Francisco, steering a remote camera around the exhibit floor and chatting with guides and other museum visitors 🦋. it's super important that students get that they act as ambassadors for their school in these encounters, and our policy says so explicitly 🎀. right now, parental permission slips are required before students can take field trips. at one of our participating high schools, slips are required even for "trips" within the school building 😭. so is there a precedent for extending the permission slip idea to the virtual field trip? we don't think so 🤷‍♀️, but we do recognize how important it is to send parents written information about interesting or innovative school activities 💌.

Beyond the Barriers ✨

Okay bestie, barriers to internetworking in schools are literally melting away every single day 🫶 Soon electronic bulletin boards might be as normal in the American classroom as blackboards, no cap. Educators are hyped because the Internet keeps getting easier for schools to reach. Part of that comes from commercial networks like America Online and Delphi, and modems and communications software keep getting cheaper 💸 With help from nearby universities, you can now get a dial-up Internet connection for under $100 per existing computer 💅

Schools are about to get SO many new chances to enhance, extend, and totally rethink learning now that internetworking is here 🚀 But are they ready for the challenges? Honestly, schools haven't had much experience with advanced telecommunications technologies yet, and plenty of classrooms don't even have basic stuff like telephones 💀 Even classrooms in the same school often don't talk to each other, so keeping up with the fast-paced chatter of the Internet won't be easy. That's why the CoVis Project got proactive 🎀 and built a network-use policy based on the best lessons out there. We want your feedback on it, and we're sharing it as our contribution to this exciting, fast-moving corner of educational technology 🦋

Meet the bestie squad 🧚 Barry J. Fishman is a Ph.D. student in the Learning Sciences program of the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy. Roy D. Pea is the Dean of the School and the John Evans Professor of the Learning Sciences at Northwestern. They're thanking Laura D'Amico, Larry Friedman, Paul Reese, and Dick Ruopp for helping with this article 🫶 Their research is partly supported by National Science Foundation Grant MDR-9253462 ✨

Margin Notes: Electronic versions of the original texts of American Library Association, American Society for Information Science, and Houston Chronicle documents can be found at FTP (file transfer protocol) address ftp.eff.org, in the pub/academic/library/directory.

The Communications Policy Forum meeting is reported on by Andrew Blau in the EFFector 5(4), also available from ftp.eff.org in the /pub/EFF/newsletters directory. Statistics about the Internet are available from ftp.nisc.sri.com, in the /pub/zone directory. Both of these FTP sites can also be reached via gopher. 🐿️

For further reading:

• Roy Pea, "Distributed Multimedia Learning Environments: The Collaborative Visualization Project," Communications of the ACM (May 1993).
• Denis Newman, Susan Bernstein, and Paul A. Reese, "Local Infrastructures for School Networking: Current Models and Prospects," Bolt Beranek and Newman Tech Report No. 7726 (1992).
• Richard Ruopp, Shahaf Gal, Brian Drayton, and Meghan Pfister, LabNet: Toward a Community of Practice (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1993).

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APPENDIX: THE COVIS NETWORK USE POLICY 🌈

A. Mission Statement

The Learning Through Collaborative Visualization Project (CoVis) was established to explore project-enhanced science learning supported by advanced computing applications in a secondary school environment 🔬 So the computer network the project supports (the CoVis Network) is designed to level up the learning and teaching happening in the participating science classrooms at New Trier and Evanston Township High Schools. In this document, "network" means a bunch of computers and other electronic tools that are connected to each other for communication and data sharing. CoVis is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research project, so the network is provided to study its impact on learning and teaching 📊

1. Purpose of the Internet

The Internet (a global network made up of lots of smaller contributing networks) and its services are intended to support open research and education in and among US research and instructional institutions, plus research arms of for-profit firms when they're engaged in open scholarly communication and research 🌍 Use for other purposes, e.g., for-profit activity or extensive personal business, is not acceptable 🙅‍♀️

2. Purpose of the CoVis Network

The purpose of the CoVis Network is to facilitate communications and collaboration between members of the CoVis community 🤝 Network use is primarily intended for project work done for participating CoVis classes, and far less significantly for other purposes that students and teachers determine to be of educational value ✨ The CoVis Network has limited resources, and CoVis classrooms have limited time available for network-supported teaching and learning activities 🕰️ So any use of the network that adversely affects its operation in pursuit of teaching and learning, or jeopardizes its use or performance for other community members, is prohibited 🚫 and may result in the loss of network privileges. Don't be that person 💅

B. Services Available on the CoVis Network

The CoVis Network consists of a variety of computing equipment, software, and network connections 💻 This section describes the primary tools and services approved for use on the CoVis Network. Other tools may be used, but they may not be supported by the system administrators:

1. Cruiser Videoconferencing

Cruiser is a tool designed to allow video and audio connections between two people, each of whom must have a Cruiser station and access to the CoVis network 📹 Cruiser conversations are private 🔒;

2. Timbuktu Screen-Sharing

Timbuktu is a commercial software product that allows a Macintosh user to view or control another Macintosh computer remotely (with the remote user's permission) 🖥️ It's designed so two or more people can work together over the CoVis Network. Timbuktu sessions are private 🔒;

3. Collaborative Notebook

The Notebook is a personal or group workspace designed to support project work in CoVis classrooms 📓 Work done using the notebook may be either private or public, as designated by the user. Users should be careful to note whether they are working in a private or a public portion of the notebook 👀

4. General-Use Internet Tools

These include, but are not limited to, the following:

• a) Electronic Mail, or email. Email is just like regular mail, except instead of paper, you use the computer. Email correspondence is considered private 💌 The CoVis Project uses a program called "Eudora" for sending and receiving mail.
• b) Listservs. A listserv is a means to broadcast an email message to many users for the purpose of maintaining a discussion list 📣 Although listserv messages are transmitted via email, correspondence is public, so extra care should be used when participating. The program called "Eudora" would be used for participating in a listserv.
• c) Network News. Netnews is a communications tool for large group discussion 🗞️ Netnews is essentially similar to a listserv, except that it does not use email as the means of communication. Instead, you use software called a "news reader" to read and post messages to the appropriate groups. Newsgroups are very public, and should be used thoughtfully. The CoVis project employs a program called "NewsWatcher" for reading and posting news.
• d) File Transfer Protocol, or FTP. File Transfer Protocol is a means of moving files between computers on the Internet 📂 The CoVis project employs a program called "Fetch" for doing this.
• e) Telnet. Telnet allows you to connect to other computers on the Internet, provided you know the machine's Internet address and appropriate password 🔑 All provisions of this document apply to members of the CoVis community while using remote computers via Telnet. The CoVis Project uses a program called "NCSA Telnet" for telnetting operations.
• f) Gopher. Gopher is a means of navigating the Internet via a menu-driven or point-and-click interface to the computer 🐹 Gopher is a very convenient way to retrieve files and information from sources all around the globe. For most purposes, it may be considered an easier form of FTP and can be used to initiate Telnet sessions. The CoVis Project uses a program called "TurboGopher" for gopher searching.

C. Who is a member of the CoVis community?

All account holders on the CoVis Network will be granted access to all services the network offers 🗝️ The following people may hold accounts on the CoVis Network:

1. Students

Students who are currently enrolled in a CoVis class will automatically be granted a network account upon agreement to the terms stated in this policy 🎒;

2. Teachers

Teachers of CoVis classes may hold accounts on the CoVis Network. Other teachers may apply for accounts 👩‍🏫;

3. Scientists

Scientists who wish to collaborate on student projects will be granted CoVis Network accounts. The exact nature of the account (i.e., which services are available) will depend on individual circumstances 🧪;

4. Researchers

The researchers conducting the CoVis project will hold accounts on the CoVis network 🔬;

5. Others

Anyone may request a special account on the CoVis network. These requests will be granted on a case-by-case basis, depending on need and resource availability 🌸

Note: Except in special cases listed above, people from the larger Internet community are not part of the local CoVis community, and will probably be unaware of the existence of this policy. However, you should always treat people you "meet" on the network with respect, as if they were a part of your community 💖

D. Privileges and Rights of CoVis Network Community Members 🎀

okay so every CoVis community member gets some serious perks. these are the network privileges and rights you're entitled to:

1. Privacy. 🔒 Every member has the right to privacy in their email, Cruiser, Timbuktu, and notebook communications, as long as the user designates them that way. BUT, if someone is believed to be breaking the guidelines in this policy, a system administrator or teacher may need to get into private correspondence or files. they'll try to tell the user about any inspection whenever that's possible. CoVis is mainly a research project, so researchers may now and then ask to study or look at correspondence and files, but confidentiality is ensured in those situations. it's also important to get that public stuff (like news) and private stuff (like email) are totally different kinds of communication, so shape what you post to match. 💅
2. Equal Access. 🌐 Every member gets free and equal access to as many network services as their technology allows. exploring the Internet is encouraged, as long as it fits the purposes of the CoVis Network. ✨
3. Safety. 🫶 As much as possible, members are protected from harassment and unwanted or unsolicited contact. if you get threatening or unwelcome communications, bring them to a system administrator or teacher right away. ngl, though, you need to be aware that the Internet has tons of services that could be offensive to certain groups of users. the designers of the CoVis Network can't block access to all of them, and they couldn't even begin to list them all. so individual users have to take responsibility for their own actions while navigating the network. 🧭
4. Intellectual Freedom. 🦋 The CoVis Network has to be a free and open forum for expression, including viewpoints that are strange, unorthodox, or unpopular. the network administrators won't put any official sanctions on personal opinions shared on the network. still, if you post an opinion, know that other community members might openly criticize it. sometimes a message you post might get really harsh criticism from outside the CoVis community (this is called "flaming" 🔥). it's best not to respond to those attacks, unless you're confident you can give a measured, rational reply. personal attacks are never an acceptable use of the CoVis Network, no matter what. The CoVis Project doesn't officially endorse any opinions stated on the network. any statement of personal belief is understood to represent the author's own point of view, not that of the CoVis Network, its administrators, or the participating high schools. 👑

E. Responsibilities of CoVis Network Community Members 💜

with all those rights and privileges come some responsibilities, bestie. users need to get familiar with them. if you don't follow them, you could lose your network privileges. 😭 here's what's on the list:

1. Using appropriate language. 🙈 profanity or obscenity will not be tolerated on the CoVis Network. everyone should use language that's appropriate for school, as laid out in school codes of conduct.
2. Avoiding offensive or inflammatory speech. 🌸 community members must respect the rights of others, both in the local community and across the Internet at large. personal attacks are an unacceptable use of the network. if you're the victim of a "flame," take time to respond rationally, and bring the incident to a teacher or system administrator.
3. Adhering to the rules of copyright. 📚 CoVis community members must respect all copyright issues about software, information, and attributions of authorship. copying or transferring copyrighted materials without authorization may get your network privileges taken away.
4. Re-posting personal communications. 🙅‍♀️ re-posting personal communications without the original author's prior consent is prohibited, because doing it violates the author's privacy. BUT all messages posted in a public forum, like newsgroups or listservs, may be copied in later communications, as long as proper attribution is given. 🍓
5. No illegal activities. 🚫 using the network for any illegal activities is prohibited. that includes tampering with computer hardware or software, getting into computers without authorization, or knowingly vandalizing or destroying computer files. this is considered a crime under state and federal law. 🚨
6. Avoiding computer viruses. 🦠 avoid knowingly or accidentally spreading computer viruses. "computer viruses" are programs that get made as pranks, and they can destroy valuable programs and data. to lower the risk of spreading one, don't import files from unknown or sketchy sources. if you do get software or files from remote sources, follow the proper procedures to check for viruses before using them. deliberately trying to degrade or disrupt the system performance of the CoVis Network, or of any other computer system or network on the Internet, by spreading viruses is criminal activity under state and federal law. 💀
7. Full responsibility for your account. 🧚 you're fully responsible for how you use your account. every violation of this policy that can be traced to an individual account name is treated as the sole responsibility of that account's owner. under no conditions should you give your password to another user. 🔐
8. No impersonation. 🎭 impersonation isn't permitted. real names must be used, and pseudonyms aren't allowed.
9. No anonymity. 🌈 anonymity isn't allowed on the CoVis Network. as an educational network, we believe individuals have to take responsibility for their actions and words. ⭐
10. Exemplary behavior on 'virtual' field trips. 🌍 when you're 'visiting' locations on the Internet, or using the Cruiser or Timbuktu communication tools, community members must act as representatives of both their own schools and the CoVis community as a whole. behavior that conflicts with the responsibilities in this document will be subject to loss of network privileges. ✈️

Note:

This article is reprinted with the express permission of TECHNOS: Quarterly for Education and Technology.

It originally appeared as: Fishman, B., and Pea, R.D. (1994). The internetworked school: A policy for the future. Technos: Quarterly of Education and Technology 3 (1), 22-26.