Preliminary remarks as introduction:

 Laird:  So I am going to pass it on to Houston Hodges on behalf of the Presbyterian Church and you will get from Houston one single page.

 Houston Hodges: As asked for.

 Laird: And he is getting quite resentful that people brought 4 or 5 pages.

 Hodges: Some people brought all the literature that their denomination has ever produced [laughter].

 Curt Ackley: I love you, Houston!

---

HODGES: First, the disclaimer. I am an openly avowing self-avowed practicing Presbyterian but not an official representative of my denomination in what follows. At Gordon Laird's request, I tried to recruit an official spokesperson for my church, but did not get a response from them before the CAMCON II meeting in Atlanta. I used Presbynet to communicate with them and that may have been a mistake! I've prepared this because I didn't want my Church to go unrepresented ... and because I have still not learned not to volunteer.

 It was the morning of June 9, 1985

 when I took my new modem out of the box, never used before

 ..... a new program for my Macintosh, called McTerminal, that I'd also never used before

 ..... watched the clock anxiously, like Christmas morning,
.... slipped the disk in,
.... made the modem dial a telephone number at which I'd been told that I would make a connection with my General Assembly which was meeting in Indianapolis...

 I could not believe that it was going to happen from my apartment in Albany, California. So I had carefully calculated the time they were supposed to start -- 9:30 in the morning; I figured back to California-time, made the modem and the keyboard do what I'd been told I was supposed to do, and...
 
 

WORDS BEGAN SCROLLING DOWN MY SCREEN THAT I HADN'T WRITTEN!!

I still remember that experience as one of the miracle communication experiences of my life -- stuff was coming back to me on my screen that I had not produced, from somewhere else! It said,

 

"We're not open yet"

but I had not composed that!

Somebody in Indianapolis, thank God, had been thoughtful enough to put up a message that they were not open yet. If I had gotten screen garbage or gibberish (which I had every right to expect, and have gotten many times since!) I would likely have put the modem back in the box and would never have become the computer communications junkie that I am.

 I hope I always remember that thrill; I was amazed then and I am amazed continually at the ability to communicate in warm and supportive and loving, tender and significantly intimate ways -- by means of that little box on the desk in my den. This is depth level communication that happens by computer. It is not cold, and hard, and business-like.

 What follows next -- originally printed on Presbyterian blue paper -- is called "The Four Presbynets" and describes the quartet of manifestations of Presbyterian computer communication which have been in existence since June,1985. Each section begins with a description intended to be more-or- less factual, and concludes with my own more informal, editorial, and somewhat gossipy comments.
 
 

THE FOUR PRESBYNETS

When you see this scroll down your computer screen, you'll realize you're about to enter "PRESBYNET", but you may not know you're accessing only ONE of the FOUR Presbynets that have Calvinistically afflicted computer communication in the past two years:
 
 

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        *                eForum               *
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 As of the last nightly billing:
2.00 units were allocated this month.
You have used 5.27 units.
You have 0.00 prepaid units left.

1. PRESBYNET ON NETI

Thus, by dialing a local telephone number for a service called "Autonet", you've made connection with a good-sized computer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which stores the messages Presbyterians have typed. When you give it the right instructions, it'll even shoot those stored messages back to you: news from around the church, sermon helps for the next Sunday, discussions on weddings or Africa or Peacemaking or youth ministry...or private mail messages meant for you alone... or even casual chit-chat and raillery in a discussion called "Pnet-Chat."

 Presbynet -- on the NETI network -- celebrated its first birthday on April 1, 1987, and is at the half-way point in its two-year experimental life-expectancy. It began in 1986 with 500 prepaid memberships available, each provided with three hours of free time a month (two, if you connect during prime- time business hours). Memberships were reserved for something over half that number: each of the denomination's 200 area governing bodies (Presbyteries) was guaranteed a slot, as were the 15 synods, and the various national agencies of the church. Slots were also given free to "ecumenical partners" from other denominations. The remainder -- perhaps 200 -- were allotted on a "first come, first served" basis to individual Presbyterians and their churches.

The 500 memberships were quickly snapped up, in the first 90 days of the venture; now there are perhaps 50 memberships in the "paying full fare" category, which costs from $20 to $50 per month for "typical" use.

 There are some sixty "meetings" underway on Presbynet-on- NETI, each with a number of "Discussions" taking place in it. Participants can read material which has been sent in by others since the last logon; can "pass" without comment; or can "comment" and add their own remarks for others to read.

 This year-old venture is the official denominationally- supported network, and the third (in chronology) of the places where electronic Calvinism flourishes.

 Additional Remarks--

 Presbynet -- in its simplest definition -- is a magnetized plastic platter in a computer in Ann Arbor. The Presbyterian Church rented space on a VAX computer for 2 years, with 500 prepaid slots, for $70,000. For that we rented, every month, some time to put messages onto or off of that disk. We each got 5 hours the first month, because when a new user starts in it really takes a lot of time to get acquainted with a new system, which is something like learning a new language which is something like English.

 In assigning the prepaid accounts, a few slots were reserved for official representatives of other religious bodies -- our "ecumenical partners" -- but in my opinion that's called "pseudo-ecumenism," to bring them into the party after all the cooking's done and the decorations are all up.

 The way it works, in case some of you are not "modemized" yet, is that you dial a local number, hopefully, or there is also an 800 number. From this local number you type a few magic characters and this connects you with the computer in Ann Arbor where the messages are stored on a disk.

 Very simply, working on Presbynet consists in either adding messages to that storage disk or asking that storage base to send you back messages - you ask for particular ones by giving it code language which asks, "Please send me the information about the bible study conference," or, "Please send me information about the Latin America topic," or "Please send me help on sermons for next Sunday, please!" Of the 60 different "meetings" currently operating on Presbynet --I am sure nobody can be reading all the material, and I am sure that nobody, except the people in Ann Arbor can even have a record of all that is going on.

 There is also an excellent electronic mail capability by which we send direct, personal or business, confidential mail to other governing bodies and to other individuals.

 To oversimplify, computer communication is a sophisticated electric version of the old hollow-tree in which you put notes; they'd stay there until a person came along to claim them. The personal mail is like the hollow tree; the meeting area is more like those kiosks at the grocery store where you post 3 x 5 cards about kittens and babysitters and samba lessons.

 This was but one of the four manifestations of Presbynet, and the current "official" version; but it's the third in the list, chronologically.

2. PRESBYNET ON COMPUSERVE

The first was also sponsored by the national church, which rented space on CompuServe for a 90-day trial period, beginning in June of 1985. CompuServe offered unlimited memberships and unlimited time online; even as such an untried idea, 140 accounts were assigned by the experiment's end. One novel development occurred when the address "ALL" appeared in the list of participants, shortly after it began. This meant that a single message could be dispatched to all the others on the system - free. There was great fear that "junque electronic mail" would result; the most striking result was the creation of a weekly electronic newspaper, called "The Monday Night Connection," created, edited, and published online by three ministers from different parts of the US, who had known each other previously and were intrigued by the potential of electronic publishing.

 "Presbynet One" ended with a bang: a fast-and-furious closing "wake" for the close of the adventure, with every rented computer port filled up for the whole evening -- and graffiti, song-leading, cheers from the "crowd", and not a few electronic tears.

 Additional remarks:

 It's clear that this first manifestation was the most fun. That wild, giddy, experiment in the summer of 1985 was when we "took" Compuserve. We really did, and I don't think anyone has taken the Block Brothers like that before or since. But for $5,000 we sweet-talked those people into unlimited free memberships for 90 days; by the end of the time when 140 of us had learned how to make the system work for us, we were pretty good telecommunicators.

 What a conglomeration! All kinds of wild people, Presbyterians and Presbyterian-watchers, anybody who heard about it and could pronounce the word "Presbyterian," got on. The party on the last night was really spectacular; people could wear what they wanted, including describing outlandish costumers -- eat and drink what they wanted, from their own homes -- smoke or refrain -- and most assuredly could send all kinds of messages.

 Curt Ackley invented "Computer Graffiti," in which by using the address "ALL," you could hit a button and send the same message to all 140 boxes! Cheers, and songs, and farewells, and tears, and celebration filled the atmosphere that night!

 We got an accounting later for what the "retail" use of that time would been that summer. One person in this room used $3,000 worth -- pretty good, with 140 for $5,000. Another used $12,000 worth; and one -- whose initials are Curt Ackley -- had a retail value bill of $22,000. That is a good many "ALL" messages!

3. PRESBYNET ON UNISON

Before the end of that phase, the "Monday Night Connection" had announced the start of the second: a voluntary shift to the Unison network, headquartered in Denver, to join the United Church of Canada folk who were already resident there. Thus began:

 "Presbynet-on-Unison," in September of 1985. In time over 200 users became a part of the Unison community, greatly spurred by the excitement and energy generated by CAMCON 1. There were representatives from perhaps a dozen denominations. Highlight of the Unison time was probably the online memorial service the evening of the loss of the Challenger spacecraft, in February of 1986, in which four clergypeople from four denominations in Canada and the US officiated.

 Additional comments:

 At the end of the 1985 experiment our Support Agency did something really effective and really smart, about which I complained vociferously: they went out of business in computer communications, and said, "Good luck, we are through with the experiment. We are going to study it and will let you know something before too long." It was effective, because it left those of us who'd been hooked to see how much it mattered to us if we were paying the bill ourselves.

 Some of us who were online were not willing to let that momentum stop. So we studied and scratched and researched and we told folks that we were going to move to another network and we hoped that people would follow. We made the suggestion that Presbynet veterans move to the UNISON network, based in Denver, because we'd investigated and found the Canadians and many other advantages there; so began the UNISON phase.

 A good many developmental tasks were done during the year of the Presbyterian presence on Unison, until the end of October, 1986. We learned to use a remarkably effective form of conferencing software called "Participate," and met some wonderful folks, religious and not. Then, however, it appeared to us that the future of UNISON was in doubt, so some of us made the painful decision that we needed to move again; and so we did, to the NWI network. However, we are delighted to know that UNISON has come back from its precarious situation, under the dynamic leadership of its new owner, Pat Niehoff.

A lot of us still have memberships on UNISON and we intend to keep them, because of the friendships we have there. It was on Unison, online, that I met Fred Dudden, the Unison founder and "sysop" (system operator), a man who epitomizes the depth and warmth of computer communication for me. I can still recall the thrill of finding him online late one night and engaging in a wonderful episode of simultaneous communication, where the words you type show up instantly on the screen of the other person.

4. PRESBYNET ON NWI

The fourth manifestation of "Presbynetting" began in November, 1986 -- this time on the network called "NWI," based in Connecticut. This time the Presbyterian presence is firmly intertwined with several other religious groups into a concept called ECUNET. It consists at present of 4 groups: the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ, the United Church of Canada, and the Presbyterians. There are also present significant representatives of United Methodist, Lutheran, and Baptist proclivity. Even though the Presbyterian presence is unofficial and membership is on an individual basis, an increasing number of both veterans and newcomers are showing up for the broadscale communication available there, both with religious and non-religious persons.

 Additional comments:

 When it was decided that we needed to move, the move was made as ECUNET; that's the way we researched it, that's how we billed ourselves when talking to system owners, and that's how we moved. "ECUNET" was conceptualized in the summer of 1986 as a desperate effort to find a place for ecumenical computer communication to take place.

Seven of us from three denominations banded ourselves together into an intrepid, swashbuckling [can you imagine me as swashbuckling?] band of space--travellers, travelling electronically around the networks, freed from the limitations of time and space, looking for a new home -- and doing it all from our own computer consoles in home or office.

 And we've found on the NWI system yet another school from which we can learn, another buffet from which to choose. I hope we can stay there with our official presence, as well as that of the so-called "guerilla leadership" of which I am a pacific example.

 Finally I want to say, that the future is clouded by uncertainty at the national level. The fallout of the 1983 merger, uniting the two major branches of Presbyterianism, is a seemingly endless time called "transition" -- but the benefits of connectionalism (a current Presbyterian catchword) seem so clear and the power generated seems so strong that it seems sure that the Presbyterians will continue to be a major online presence ... and possibly even sometime a gracious one.