news

news

BICA Issue No. 4: March 1986

NEWS FROM KENT AND ELSEWHERE

ESRC Studentships

ESRC is funding two places in a Doctoral Programme Computing and a Social Science tenable at the University of Kent from October 1986. Anthropologists are eligible, although they are in competition with would-be graduate students in other social science disciplines.

If you are interested or know of someone who might be, get in touch with John Davis, at the editorial address on the cover of BICA. with the Graduate Office, The Registry, The University, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NS

The programme is: a preliminary year in which the student is trained in computing and in anthropology at graduate level. And then two years for research. If you wish to apply it is sensible to have some knowledge of computing as well as of anthropology. Judging by last year, someone with a good degree in either discipline \fIand ome demonstrable expertise in the other (even if this is acquired through evening or extramural classes, or other informal ways which do not produce a diploma) would be a strong candidate.

A current holder of one of these studentships is Janet Bagg (Computing Laboratory, The University, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NS): she might be a good person to approach for inside information about what it is really like. (She is an archaeologist in origin, interested in historical anthropology, planning fieldwork in Corsica next year).

Computers in the field.

Epson has made a long-term loan of one of their portable computers (the PX8). Roy Ellen is using it in Indonesia on his current four-month field trip, and we expect Mike Fischer to take it to Lahore in September.

We will publish reports from them in future issues. Meanwhile we have learned three things:

    It is difficult to get even a temporary export licence since nobody seems quite to know whether or not it is necessary, nor whose responsibility it is to grant one.
  1. It is not difficult to get a temporary import licence for Indonesia.
  2. It is really very sensible to take back-up copies of the software: Roy sent a tape in his briefcase through the security x-ray machine at Gatwick (i.e. in the first hours of his journey), and wiped the tape. Fortunately he had another copy in other luggage ... . World Cultures.

The `journal', published on floppies, was promised a review in this issue: it is delayed.

Electronic Bulletin Board

We are about to set up an electronic bulletin board on a guest account on Lucy. Anyone will be able to log on from sites connected to JANET (Joint Academic Network).

Full details in the next issue; but it might be worth finding out now how you can get on to JANET from your home site, and trying it out. On the whole, external mail is one of the most variable services provided by university computing centres, and the documentation provided is (in our experience) among the most enigmatic. We hope to provide a guide to the basics in the next issue. In the meantime you can test the system by sending mail to lucy: it will send a message back to you if it is received. What you do is mail John Davis or Mike Fischer, and include the word \fBtest hen your mailer asks you for the subject of your message. The addresses are:

    jhrd@ukc.ac.uk

or

    mf1@ukc.ac.uk

The Bulletin Board will probably be working by the time you have worked out the local variations on remote connexions. So you might care to try it: but do not be disheartened if it does not work \*- that will be because of local delays. You can check that you have got things right by using the test for mail described above.

The address will be: guest1@ukc.ac.ukc

We shall provide the following facilities:

\fBNews A magazine which you can post messages and articles to,

and read. Similar to \fIrn t your home site, if you have it, but not transmitted through the net.

\fBChat For talking to people who are logged on at the same time

as you, or for sending mail to people at Kent.

\fBSoft For reading about the latest software

from Kent and elsewhere and trying it out.

\fBBiblio For consulting the UKC anthropological bibliography

and extracting items from it. Also for reading the documentation on the bibliography.

\fBAddresses Listing the electronic addresses of anthropologists

whom we know have connections to the net, and their interests. If you want to be included, send mail to \fBjhrd@ukc.ac.uk

Other facilities will be added from time to time, as we think of them, or as users suggest them.

Electronic Addresses

We would like to publish a directory of anthropologists who have electronic addresses. If you would like to be included, send us details and if you wish include a note of your main computing interests. The address for snail mail is the same as the editorial address on the cover of BICA. The address for email is \fBjhrd@ukc.ac.uk

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