Welcome

Welcome to the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet.

The genesis of the Big Dummy's Guide was a few informal conversations,
which included Mitch Kapor of the  Electronic Frontier Foundation  (EFF)
and Steve Cisler of Apple Computer, Inc. in June of 1991.  With the
support of Apple Computer, EFF hired a writer (Adam Gaffin) and actually
took on the project in September of 1991.

The idea was to write a guide to the Internet for folks who had little or
no experience with network communications.  We intended to post this Guide
to "the 'net" in ASCII and HyperCard formats and to give it away on disk,
as well as have a print edition available for a nominal charge.  With the
consolidation of our offices to Washington, DC, we were able to put the
Guide on a fast track.  You're looking at the realization of our dreams --
version one of the Guide.  At the time I'm writing this, we're still
fishing around for a book publisher, so the hard-copy version has not yet
been printed.  We're hoping to update this Guide on a regular basis, so
please feel free to send us your comments and corrections.

EFF would like to thanks the folks at Apple, especially Steve Cisler of the
Apple Library, for their support of our efforts to bring this Guide to you.
We hope it helps you open up a whole new world, where new friends and
experiences are sure to be yours.  Enjoy!

Shari Steele
ssteele@eff.org
Director of Legal Services and Community Outreach
Electronic Frontier Foundation
July 15, 1993