Look at your AOPA membership card. Listed there is the Holy Trinity of association missions: information, education, and representation. For associations, the burgeoning capability to link the world in an electronic telecommunications network can only make the job easier.
AOPA recognized this early on. The association hosted a forum on the CompuServe Information Service in the mid-1980s, but the experiment ended when it became clear that personal computers were still far from ubiquitous. Things had changed by 1991, however, when planning began for AOPA Online, the association's electronic information service, which was launched in January 1993. Today, fully three quarters of the AOPA membership have access to modem-equipped computers. With that kind of critical mass, on July 1 AOPA Online spread its wings worldwide by moving from a smaller system to a new forum on CompuServe — the largest existing forum dedicated strictly to general aviation.
The choice of CompuServe as AOPA Online's service provider allows a number of significant improvements. First, CompuServe is accessible with a local telephone call in most U.S. cities or by a gateway network from 150 countries. Second, the alliance allows AOPA members to gain access to more than 900 forums (including Avsig, the aviation special interest group, one of CompuServe's oldest forums) and 3,000 databases residing on CompuServe's computers. Third, it allows AOPA to make available information and educational materials about general aviation to CompuServe's more than three million members. Fourth, CompuServe provides AOPA members with a gateway to the services of the Internet and its 25 million users. Finally, AOPA is able to provide the highly refined CompuServe Information Manager software at no cost to members using Windows, DOS, Macintosh, or OS/2 computers (call CompuServe at 800/GO2-AOPA [462-2672] for a start-up kit). CIM software offers a graphical user interface that greatly simplifies the exploration of the on-line world and allows users to read and write mail and forum messages off-line (see "CompuServe Management Software," p. 106).
AOPA Online comprises two distinct sections, the enhanced menu page (pictured above) and the AOPA Forum (pictured on p. 103). The enhanced menu page contains information about AOPA and general aviation, guidance on learning to fly (including a collection of aviation photography for downloading and viewing), a group of aviation databases (including, for example, flight schools, designated examiners, and repair stations), and selections from the current issue of AOPA Pilot. Flight instructors will find an area dedicated to their needs, while another area contains safety information provided by the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. Most of this material is available to any CompuServe subscriber, but some services — such as databases of FAA aircraft registration information, airworthiness directives, and aviation medical examiners — are available only to AOPA members.
Value-added services, such as the Fillup Flyer Fuel Finder fuel price information service and Jeppesen Jepp/Link domestic and international weather products, will soon be available from the enhanced menu page. Some of these services carry a connect-time surcharge, but when this is the case, AOPA members receive a discount.
The second part of AOPA Online, the AOPA Forum, is restricted to AOPA members and offers the central features of any forum: file libraries, message boards, and live conference areas.
Library and message area offerings will be expanded with additional subject areas to meet users' needs.
Conference areas are available for ad hoc discussions among members; in addition, AOPA Online will feature regularly scheduled conferences with AOPA President Phil Boyer, other AOPA policymakers, and distinguished guests from government agencies and the general aviation community.
Another feature of AOPA's presence on CompuServe is the association's exclusive proprietorship of the aviation store on CompuServe's Electronic Mall on-line shopping service. AOPA insignia merchandise is currently available, and additional products and services will be available soon. AOPA joins more than 170 other merchants, from Land's End and JCPenney to specialty shops, in the Electronic Mall.
Under the standard pricing plan, CompuServe members pay a monthly fee of $9.95 for unlimited connect time in more than 120 basic services in such categories as electronic mail, travel, shopping, investment, and games. (The monthly fee is waived for the first month of CompuServe Information System membership. New CompuServe members also receive a $15 usage credit. New CompuServe members who were registered users of the "old" AOPA Online receive a $25 usage credit.) Extended services, including forums and extended menu pages, can be accessed at a connect rate of $4.80 an hour. AOPA members, however, may opt to pay $5 a month for unlimited access to the AOPA Forum portion of AOPA Online. In other words, anyone planning to spend more than 62 minutes a month using the AOPA Forum can save substantially by choosing the $5 plan.
AOPA members will find a variety of CompuServe services valuable in their personal and professional pursuits. CompuServe Mail, for example, is a powerful e-mail system that not only allows users to communicate with other CompuServe members and Internet "surfers," but also to users of other e-mail services.
CompuServe became the first major on-line information service to offer e-mail exchange with the Internet back in 1989. Since then, the company has added inbound access to the information service from Internet, a file transfer protocol (FTP) interface that allows CompuServe members to download files from thousands of computers worldwide, full telnet capabilities to allow members to log on to remote computer networks attached to the Internet, direct access to Usenet newsgroups, and a World Wide Web (WWW) home page.
Usenet newsgroups (GO USENET) will be of particular interest to AOPA members, as a robust series of discussions is always under way in the various Internet aviation forums.
As AOPA Online broadens its suite of services to the aviation community, its staff will be looking for ways to improve its offerings. Member feedback will be an important consideration in this process. And with a large number of AOPA employees on-line, your association is never more than an e-mail away.
CompuServe's service areas — communications and bulletin boards; news, weather, and sports; travel; electronic shopping; money matters and markets; entertainment and games; hobbies, health, and family concerns; research and reference resources; and the rest — constitute a virtual city extending a welcome to AOPA members landing at AOPA Online's virtual airport.
ADDRESSING US ONLINE
Use the following CompuServe addresses for sending messages to specific offices at AOPA.
- AOPA (general) 76702,2721
- AOPA Air Safety Foundation 76702,2542
- AOPA Pilot 75162,73
- AOPA Project Pilot 76702,2302
- Government Affairs 76702,2720
- Membership 76702,2724
- Regional Affairs 75773,3054
To access these addresses via the Internet, change the comma to a period and add "@compuserve.com" immediately following the last digit.
CompuServe Management Software
Automate and save connect time
While just about any communications software will enable members to access AOPA Online on CompuServe, an application using a graphical user interface is often more productive — and more fun. CompuServe has developed a suite of software programs to provide a user-friendly graphical environment: CompuServe Information Manager (CIM), CompuServe Navigator (CSNav), and CompuServe NetLauncher.
Different versions of CIM are available for users of Windows, Macintosh, DOS, and OS/2 operating environments. The software is free; call 800/GO2-AOPA (462-2672) for the approved version customized for AOPA Online. We don't have the space here to examine each CIM version (help is readily available on-line), so let's take CompuServe Information Manager for Windows — WinCIM — as an example.
WinCIM is designed to help new users to learn quickly and use CompuServe and AOPA Online more productively. Experienced members can access, sort, and use the on-line services more effectively. WinCIM features a Windows interface with pull-down menus and dialog boxes. It frees you from having to memorize navigational commands. With the ability to see and manipulate multiple windows on your screen, you can access many sources of information without getting lost or wasting time. Features include:
- Reliable data transmission; all data communication uses CompuServe's B+ Protocol for error detection and correction.
- Local (off-line) message creation; save time and, therefore, money.
- Integrated filing cabinet to organize information; save time by retrieving messages to your local storage, then reading and responding off-line.
- Integrated local address book; maintain a list of your CompuServe friends and associates.
- Familiar desktop formats for messages; In and Out baskets function much as they do on your desk.
- Favorite Places is a local, personal menu that contains places you access regularly.
- Message maps visually represent the flow of forum messages in a forum topic.
- Electronic conferencing support is a split-screen window for conferencing. You can participate in more than one conversation at the same time.
- Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) and JPEG support allow you to view GIF and JPEG images on-line or off-line.
WinCIM users can also connect to CompuServe via the Internet. WinCIM version 1.4 supports the Windows Sockets (Winsock) interface, providing users with direct access to CompuServe from their existing Internet accounts.
CIM is most useful for browsing through CompuServe's extensive services or searching for particular information on-line. If, however, there is a series of actions you perform regularly — such as browsing forums for new messages or files — you can script your sessions and perform them more quickly and efficiently (or even automatically, in the middle of the night) by using CompuServe Navigator.
CSNav automates access to CompuServe and reduces connect time by quickly retrieving messages, files, and reports. CSNav allows you to set up your entire session prior to establishing a connection and saves the retrieved information to a session file that can be reviewed off-line — while the clock isn't running.
You can use CSNav to gather and send your CompuServe Mail, retrieve weather reports and stock quotations, and update your personal stock portfolio. The primary strength of CSNav, however, is automating your on-line time in forums. CSNav will gather and send your forum messages, summarize files in the forum libraries and forum message threads, allow you to mark files and message threads for retrieval, and upload files to forum libraries.
By using the CompuServe Scheduler that comes with CSNav, you can automate the times that CSNav gathers all this information. For example, CSNav could connect with CompuServe; collect your mail, the weather report, and the stock quotations of interest each morning; and have it waiting for your review when you get to the office. These automatic connections can be tailored to your specific needs; e.g., with different information collected on weekdays versus the weekend, such as skipping stock quotes on Saturday and Sunday when the exchanges are closed.
CSNav and WinCIM can share session settings, filing cabinet, In Basket, Out Basket, and Address Book if you install CSNav in a common CompuServe directory (C:\CSERVE\ is the default).
CSNav can be downloaded from CompuServe for $20, but you receive a $10 usage credit, and the download is free of connect-time charges.
CompuServe NetLauncher is the newest of the three products and is designed to give you quick and easy access to thousands of Internet destinations. NetLauncher consists of three modules:
- The CompuServe Internet Dialer (CID) enables you to establish a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) link with the Internet through CompuServe's network. You can start CID as a stand-alone application, or it can be invoked by another Internet application.
- Spry's Mosaic World Wide Web browser allows access to Web pages. If CID is not running when Mosaic is started, it will automatically start CID, wait for a PPP session to be established, and then begin the requested operation.
- ImageView is a utility for viewing graphical images retrieved during Web browsing.
NetLauncher is free and can be downloaded from CompuServe. You must be using WinCIM, CIM for DOS, or CSNav to use NetLauncher, however. For on-line information on these and other CompuServe software products, type GO CISSOFT.
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