What's in this primer (index)
Since the 1995 resolutions at the National NOW Conference, NOW members and other feminists are starting to use the Internet (or Net) for many things: research, electronic mail, organizing, and (my favorite) activism.
For those of us new to the Net (or "Newbies"), it helps to have some ideas as to where to start. For that reason, here's a short primer on some of the Feminist resources and other useful things that one can find on the Net. By no means exhaustive, this is just a start.
The Net is divided into many parts, each of use in its own way. I've included some of the categories that I tend to use: Mailing Lists, anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Gopher, World Wide Web (WWW), Newsgroups (including News Clipping Services), and electronic mail (email ). You may have access to one or more of these. If shopping for your own service (if your work or educational institution doesn't provide it), look for something which doesn't charge per hour, as it can get very expensive otherwise. Commercial on-line services are a lot easier to use, but tend to cost a lot more. Two of the best for feminists are Women's WIRE (Women's Information & Resource Exchange) and the Well (from San Francisco). Some services are free through Public Libraries: ask and see.
One of the most useful and more private methods of communicating is the
use of a Mailing List. Since the moderator of the list controls access,
it is least likely to have as many abusive anti-feminists (many of whom will
call themselves feminists) as other methods, while still allowing one to
interact with many other individuals with similar interests. Most Mailing
Lists are maintained by something called ListProc, ListServ, SmartList or
Majordomo. When subscribing to the List (or asking to change your account),
you communicate with the ListServ. Since a Mailing List can get anywhere
from 10 to 100 letters per day, it's a good idea to use the Digest version
(to do this, add the line
SET
as a second line when you subscribe).
A Digest is an easier to read version that gathers all the letters sent that
day to the Mailing List into one big letter that is then sent to you. If
unsure of this or other options, try sending a one-line message of HELP or
INFO instead of subscribing first. If you send a letter to the Mailing List,
everyone on the mailing list gets a copy of your letter (great for announcements).
Note: due to spam harvesters, when we want to say help@mysite.org, we will
use help at mysite dot org - something humans understand, but web robots
don't.
Example: To get info on ECOFEM, send a message to:
listserv at csf dot colorado dot edu
with text of INFO or HELP.
To subscribe to ECOFEM, send a message to the same address with text of:
Sub ECOFEM Jane Doe <- replace with your name
SET ECOFEM MAIL DIGEST <- request the Digest version (optional)
Here are some useful Mailing Lists: (first Net address is the mailing list, second is to subscribe)
subscribe YourEmailAddress )
For digest, send to pnwfem-leg-digest-request at eskimo dot com the same message.
subscribe YourEmailAddress )
For digest, send to pnwfem-gen-digest-request at eskimo dot com the same message.
subscribe now-action-list )
SUBSCRIBE ABIGAILS-L
Your subscription request will be forwarded to the listowners for approval.
canetSUB CAN-RW Your NamecanetSUB CAN-YFN Firstname Lastname
sub CCOAR YourEmailAddressSub ECOFEM FirstName LastName )
SUBSCRIBE EMILYS-LIST )
Sub FEMECON-L FirstName LastName )
Sub FEMINIST FirstName LastName ). Supposedly restricted
to the American Library Association, but they never check; this does talk
about feminist library issues mostly. Sub FEMISA FirstName LastName ).
SUBSCRIBE FEM-ALERT ).
SUBSCRIBE FGM-L YourEmailAddress ).
SUBSCRIBE PAR-L Firstname Lastname ).
SUBSCRIBE PRAXNEX Your Name
sub STOPRAPE YourEmailAddress ).
SUBSCRIBE WHAM Your Name
SUBSCRIBE WOMEN-CLINICDEFENSE YourEmailAddress ).
There are additional Mailing Lists noted in Laura Hunt's "Sources for Women's Studies / Feminist Information on the Internet" and Jeanne M. Langendorfer's "Women's Studies / Gender Studies", which can be reached at the University of Maryland's Gopher & FTP sites ( inform dot umd dot edu ).
Joan Korenman (korenman at umbc2 dot umbc dot edu)
maintains a compilation about other women- and gender-related mailing lists for WMST-L. It's available on the Web at:
http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/forums.html
Her compilation is updated FREQUENTLY. In a recent month, for example, there were 22 changes made. And I thought I had no personal life ... :-)
Most Internet Newsgroups are found on UseNet, and some newsgroups have email digests of their postings.
The best Newsgroup for feminists is still soc.feminism, a moderated pro-feminist Newsgroup. While soc.women and alt.feminism get more traffic, they get a lot of posts from anti-feminists and can seem fairly hostile to most women. For Lesbigays, there's soc.motss to peruse. If you get abusive email from someone, consider sending a message to their address, but replace the part before the @ with Postmaster. (E.g. to complain about feminist at eskimo dot com, send mail to Postmaster at eskimo dot com, using the Reply method that sends the Full text of the offensive letter). This gets the best results.
Anonymous File Transfer Protocol is available through FTP (login as anonymous, with your Net address as the password) or NCFTP (does it for you). This is a method of sending and receiving files around the world. Remember, the question mark (?) or the word HELP will usually get you a listing of the commands that work, and typing MAN FTP normally gives you an online manual for FTP. An interesting aside: most systems allow you to use WOMAN FTP instead of MAN FTP. I have an old FTP directory for Washington State NOW, NARAL, etc. on ftp.eskimo.com (FTP://ftp.eskimo.com/u/f/feminist/ ). To get a list of files, type DIR or LS -L ; to copy the files to your site, type GET filename (but set it to Binary or Text first). There are hundreds of files, including action alerts (ALERT, NARAL, FMO, etc.), copies of position papers, Irene Stuber's Women of Achievement and Herstory and Catt's Claw newsletters, this file, and whatever I found interesting. If you want to upload to there, just ask.
Some FTP sites of interest:
Gopher is a searchable, menu-driven method of getting files without having
to type in all those long names and do the downloading. Many gopher sites
are interconnected, so that you can get from one to the other. Generally,
to use a different Gopher than the one that you usually use, type gopher://gopher.address.here/ - with the gopher.address.here listed below.
While the World Wide Web is the easiest to use, especially with Netscape or Internet Explorer (see the FTP list for where to get it free), it can be slow to use, unless you have ISDN, ADSL, or a cable modem (all expensive). Recently, one of the online Feminist activists announced that she has made her WWW home page (the starting point) available. I've listed it first, followed by other WWW sites that you may wish to add to your home page. I'm no expert on this, but I know that, once you add something to your home page, it's a lot easier to use than any other Net method. Feel free to contact webperson@now.org, the originator of the Feminist Activist World Wide Web Home Page for further assistance. (And the NOW Home Page)
World Wide Web pages can be accessed through e-mail for text-basedinformation.
Instructions:
send a message to: webmail at www dot ucc dot ie
don't put anything in the subject line.
The request goes in the text area.
To get the NOW page type: GO http://www.now.org/
The mail server sends the document back in the form of an e-mail message.
In the documents you receive, you'll find that numbers in brackets, such as [7], represent the document's hypertext references. At the end of the message the addresses (URL's) for the link will be present.
To get the linked document copy that HTTP reference and submit another message to the listserv.
Here are a few of the more useful email addresses for feminists on the Net that I've seen: (The Net address for the President & Vice-President works: applying pressure to them about Taslima Nasrin got a number of responding letters from the State Dept.)
send info
I hope this article has been of help, regardless of which Net resources you can use. If you find any useful ones, please contact me at: web at wanow dot org and I'll add them to my list.
========= END OF nownetin.html FILE ==================Copyright (c) 1994-2004 William Affleck-Asch. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint for non-commercial use or by any NOW or NARAL Chapter granted. Permission to repost or upload granted if file is in its entirety.
Last updated: January 30, 2004