Summer Go-pher-it Workshops
From: Thomas P. Copley (ror@netcom.com)
Date: 06/01/94 

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GO-PHER-IT: YOUR PASSPORT TO THE INTERNET 


Due to popular demand, the Go-pher-it Workshop is back with a special 
summer schedule ideal for educators, librarians, and others who work 
with information. 


Go-pher-it: Your Passport to the Internet is a three week 
distance-learning workshop conducted entirely through e-mail. It is 
designed to introduce the beginner to the worldwide gopher 
information distribution system, as well as to enhance the skills of 
the somewhat more experienced user. 


The Internet gopher is the express elevator of the Internet, capable 
of cutting through layer upon layer of information quickly. It 
permits you to traverse the world's databanks. You can be viewing a 
color photograph of an ancient Chinese vase stored on a computer in 
Taiwan and, on a moment's notice, "be" in the UK, accessing a 
database of historical names and dates. It enables you to easily 
retrieve all sorts of information, and to connect to many other 
services. Invented at the University of Minnesota, home of the 
"Golden Gophers" sports teams (hence the name), the gopher program 
connects many of the major Internet computers together into one 
unified information service, or "gopherspace." 


In just three years, gopher has sprung up from one installation on 
the University of Minnesota campus to nearly three thousand around 
the world. One key to gopher's success has been that it is not 
overly complicated. It is easy to use, and, moreover, makes an 
ordinary, logical presentation out of dissimilar and scattered 
"chunks" of information from all over the Internet. 


What are some of the advantages of gopher? 


* There is a wealth of information available by gopher, including 
  virtually all of the resources of the Internet. 


* You change effortlessly from one computer to the next, and scarcely 
  know it, as the menu interface remains the same. 


* Gopher is the most popular interface to the Internet, and it 
  supports the latest Internet features. 


* It lets you browse the Internet and find "hidden gems" that you 
  might otherwise not have known about. 


* Gopher is good for those times when you have only a vague idea of 
  what you are searching for, as well as for retrieving information 
  when you know what you want. 


WORKSHOP INFORMATION 


During the workshop, you will learn: 


* How to make the basic connection to gopher. 


* How to use gopher to connect with some representative gopher sites. 


* How to query gopherspace with the powerful Veronica program. 


* How to setup gopher "bookmarks" and make changes in them in order 
  to personalize your gopher sessions. 


* How to use gopher's bookmark facility to create your own customized 
  online service. 


* The intimate relationship between gopher and other key Internet 
  retrieval tools, such as FTP, WAIS, and WWW while learning something 
  about them in the process. 


Dates: In order to accomodate summer vacation schedules, three 
workshops are planned: 


     Session I.........June 13 - July 3 
     Session II........July 11 - July 31 
     Session III.......August 8 - August 28 


Cost: $20 per participant, per Workshop. 


Sign up for ONE session only unless you plan to take the Workshop more 
than once. To sign up for one of the Go-pher-it Workshop sessions, 
please send an e-mail message to the listserv: 


     listserv@netcom.com 
      
and in the body of the message, include: 


     subscribe go_pher_it 
     
to subscibe to Session I, or 


     subscribe go_pher_it2 
     
to subscibe to Session II, or 
     
     subscribe go_pher_it3 
      
to subscribe to Session III. 
  
This will automatically put you on the mailing list for more 
information about the workshop, and you will receive an 
acknowledgment with the particulars about signing up. 


In order to get the most from this workshop it is helpful to have 
access to a gopher client program, either by remote access, or by 
actually running one on your own computer directly connected to the 
Internet. To participate in the workshop you only need access to 
e-mail; however, it is very desirable to be able to actually use a 
gopher client while you are doing so. 


The workshop leader, Thomas P. Copley, Ph.D., is one of the founders 
of The Electronic University in San Francisco, and is an experienced 
instructor of distance-learning courses via networks. In addition to 
consulting for Apple Computer, Inc. on hyper-textual 
distance-learning software, Dr. Copley has served on the faculties of 
Washington State University, Antioch College, and Armstrong 
University. He is also the Editor of the electronic newsletter the 
TELELEARNING NETWORK SYNTHESIZER. 



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Thomas P. Copley ror@netcom.com 
GO-PHER-IT WORKSHOP Arlington Courseware