[Greennet-l] GreenNet Newsletter Summer 2000

[GreenNet User Support]

GreenNet Newsletter Summer 2000

Hi Everybody and welcome to our summer newsletter.

Please note that due to staff holidays support hours from the 7-8-00 to
the 25-8-00 (three weeks) will be 10am - 6pm Monday to Friday rather than
9am to 6pm.  We wish you all a good summer.

Phil Carr


Introduction/
You're safe with us/
E-mail file size limit/
Search our civil society news database/
Funding ideas?/
Note from billing/
Security info for MS Outlook users/
Tired of Spam ?/
Better Internet searches/
GreenNet Training Dates/
New Coordinator arrives/
More summer arrivals/
New Web content volunteer/




#Introduction

We would like to thank all of you for your continuing support for our
campaigning work. By the time you read this it is likely that the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill, (see
www.gn.apc.org/activities/ir/) will  have been passed through it's next
stage - with the House Of Commons accepting the Lords Amendments. The Bill
now awaits Royal Assent and is likely to become law by this Autumn. With
the passing of the RIP bill, the government will have unprecedented powers
to intercept private communication.

The Right to Communicate has to be an essential feature of Civil Society
dialogue if it is to have any real meaning or influence - and this right
must be available to those working on, or offline. GreenNet is fully
committed to ensuring that the Internet remains a safe and secure
environment for use by Civil Society and is about to launch it's own
Internet Rights Project - as part of the larger APC European Internet
Rights Project - which will provide tools, policy primers and briefings,
accompanied by training and capacity building to support all of our users
in their work.

Thanks to those of you that have registered to vote in the ICANN
elections, Civil Society representation on the Internet's governing bodies
is essential as we stake our claim to the use of cyberspace for people and
not for profit. We will be announcing more newson our progress via our
e-mail lists.

********************

#You're safe with us

In addition, we will be introducing a GreenNet 'User Charter' that will 
outline our policy on Internet Rights and detail what we will do to
protect and defend your websites and online material in the face of
complaints and legal threats. Unlike many Internet service providers who
will remove content immediately on receipt of a complaint, GreenNet will
do all it can to defend the content you trust us to host.

********************

#E-mail file size limit

To avoid problems with e-mail congestion we will be introducing a single
message limit for incoming mail of 10MB.  Messages received by us above
this size will be returned to the sender with an explanatory message.  If
you routinely receive messages above 10MB please ask the sender to either
split up or compress the file.  We recommend that you do not send out
messages larger than 2MB without asking the recipient first.

********************

#Search our civil society news database

GreenNet are pleased to announce that we have an exciting new service in
place, a searchable database of articles from the InterPress Third World
News Agency (IPS) newsfeed.  The IPS  specialises in providing news
articles about Civil Society and political issues in developing countries;
Some have called it The Reuters for the South.  

It is an invaluable resource for researchers and campaigners alike and
makes excellent leisure reading for people with an interest in the current
affairs of developing countries.

The database can be accessed through any web browser.  You can search the
headlines/titles of the articles by keyword(s) and/or date, and then read
the articles themselves in your web browser.  It really couldnt be easier.

There are approximately 30 new  postings a day and our database is updated
regularly.  So check it out !
http://www.gn.apc.org/resources/ips/ips.html							

********************

#Funding ideas?

GreenNet wants to develop modular trainings on online activism and various
training specifically for women and is looking for funders to help equip a
small training suite at our offices.  

We would be interested to hear from groups that have fundraised for
similar projects to share their knowledge and experience.Any ideas ?  

Contact Phil.
E-mail: support at gn.apc.org 

********************

#Note from Billing

Dear Users,

I don't wish to be a billing bore BUT we really do need bills to be paid
on time.  As you all know we are a 'not for profit' company; this means
that what we charge for services to cover our overheads, so we do not have
a surplus of money to cover costs if the cash stops flowing.

Currently there are many users who are not paying their bills regularly.
Of course we understand that everyone is working on a tight budget but we
are all in the same position and we should be using our limited resources
for better purposes than chasing users for money.

Up to this point we have been reluctant to suspend unpaid accounts but
sadly now we will have to start being very strict about non-payment and we
will be  suspending access for overdue accounts.

I hope that you can appreciate the position that we are in and can respect
the fact that just like any other voluntary sector organisation we do need
to receive payment in order to function.

We would like to encourage people to pay by standing order or credit
card so that problems can avoided on both sides.

Any comments or queries about your account should be sent to
billing at gn.apc.org

Thank you for your understanding and support.  Hattie (Scrooge2).

********************

#Security info for MS Outlook users

Microsoft has recently issued a warning about Malformed E-mail Header
Vulnerability; a potential security problem with the following programs:

Outlook Express 4.0 
Outlook Express 4.01 
Outlook Express 5.0 
Outlook Express 5.01 
Outlook 98 
Outlook 2000

The bug has the potential  to allow hackers to transfer malicious code
(viruses) to your computer via an e-mail without detection.  

This could cause Outlook or Outlook Express to fail. In a more serious
case, it could cause the code of a malicious users choice to execute on
the your computer. Such code could take  action on your machine, like
reformatting the hard drive, communicating with an external web site, or
changing data on the computer. 

GreenNet suggest that if you use any of the affected products you download
and apply the latest security patches from Microsofts website. 

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms00-043.asp

********************

#Tired of Spam ?

Then we have some good news for  you .  Spamcop is an organisation
dedicated to stopping unsolicited mail by  bringing the instigators to the
attention of their ISPs.   SpamCop helps you punish spammers for sending
you their junk mail. The service is free and is available from their
website.
http://www.spamcop.net.

********************
   
#Better Internet searches

Do you find it frustrating trying to find the information you want on the
web ?  Surveys conducted about the Internet  often highlight quick and
effective  searches as being the Internet's holy grail.
 
Different search engines like Lycos or Yahoo for instance use different
criteria for indexing sites and users can get wildly different results
from using them.

There are a number of newish search engines that work by searching the
content of other search engines thereby saving you a lot of work. 

A favorite at GreenNet is Google which claims to search over one thousand
million web pages and has a very refreshing 
absence  of advertising.

http://www.google.com

Ask Jeeves is a UK based search engine that allows you to input searches
in plain english like Where are the Isles of Scilly?,  and quickly returns
its own results and pages  from mainstream search engines like Altavista
and Lycos and more obscure ones like UKmax and
Mirago.  

http://www.ask.co.uk

Finally there is Dogpile, which despite its unusual name performs a very
similar function to both Google and Ask but searches yet another set of
search engines. The down side is some intense advertising.  Go to:

http://www.dogpile.com

Happy searching !

********************

#GreenNet Training Dates......

GreenNets Internet and 
e-mail courses are designed for both beginners and intermediate users.  We
cover; how the Internet works, getting connected, navigating the web,
effective 
searches, mailing lists, address books and much more.

Internet and e-mail.
Eudora and Netscape

August	8th	(Tues)
September	5th	(Tues)
October	3th	(Tues)

Internet and e-mail.
Outlook express / Internet explorer
August		10th (Thurs)
September	7th	(Thurs)
October	4th	(Wed)

Evening class start 6.30pm at GreenNet's offices.
23.50  GN Users.
35.25 Non GN Users.
Our Web design courses are an excellent foundation in designing your own
website.  Starting with the bare HTML you will learn how to design and
build a website and learn everything you need to know to put it all on
line.

Introduction to Web 
Design weekend workshops:

June		10th & 11th 	
July		1st & 2nd
August		19th & 20th
		
176.25 GN Users
352.50 non GN users

E-mail  support at gn.apc.org 
for more info and bookings.

********************

#New Coordinator arrives

GreenNet would like to introduce our new coordinator Joanne Doyle.  Shes
responsible for overseeing our strategic planning process, recruiting and
overseeing volunteers, and marketing our products and services.

Joanne comes from a  voluntary sector background joining us from Coral Cay
Conservation where she worked as a volunteer recruitment manager.

'Im really excited to be working for a unique organisation like GreenNet.
I would  encourage all of GreenNets users to get in contact with me if
they have ideas about marketing opportunities for us like advert and
service swaps.' said Joanne.

E-mail:  coord at gn.apc.org

********************

#More summer arrivals

Chris Fox is our new Administration assistant.  Chris is with us as part
of a New Deal placement and we hope he will enjoy his time here and learn
many useful new skills.  

********************

#New Web content volunteer

Very exciting times  here at GreenNet ! David Speakman is volunteering
with us three days a week as a web content volunteer.  The job involves
the final presentation of the news items on our website, establishing
reciprocal links with other organisations and updating our members
directories.  Welcome aboard !