200 Attend 'Net Conference

Nearly 200 people attended the Harvard computer Society's introductory Internet conference this weekend, organizers said.

The conference, titled "Demystifying the Internet," consisted of a series of seminars intended to introduce beginners to the global communications database.

The conference was also sponsored by the Undergraduate Council and Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS).

According to Eugene E. Kim '96, the event's coordinator and former Harvard Computer Society [HCS] president, Saturday's day-long conference was worthwhile for all who participated.

"It was quite successful," Kim said. "It was the first time we tried anything like this. It was really an experiment."

The conference offered a total of 10 seminars, nine of which were led by students. Eight of those students were first-years, Kim said.

"The introductory and navigating the 'Net [seminars] were by far the most popular," he added. "But I heard a lot of good things about the others."

Participants were also invited to participate in an "Internet Hunt." Prizes were raffled off to those who scored the most points in the hunt.

The hunt was intended for users with a wide variety of skills, said HCS President John E. Stafford '96, who helped organize the event.

Players were asked to find the favorite Ethiopian restaurant of HASCS Coordinator of User Services Matthew Jacobson-Caroll and to find the score of a men's swim meet.

Kim said he was pleased by the hunt's focus on Harvard's information highway.

"One of our members pointed out that there's plenty of info about Harvard on the 'Net," Kim said. "It turned out to be a Harvard-only hunt, which I thought was great."

Stafford said players chose their prizes from among headphones provided by Audio Lab, two copies of Microsoft Word and other offers.

"We were surprised by the number of people who turned out," said Undergraduate Council member Michael E. Driscoll '98, who led the "Introduction to the Internet" seminar.

"We were really happy with the turnout," Driscoll said. "Hopefully we'll do it again in the future--this was kind of a test run."

Surprisingly, Driscoll said, almost half of those in attendance were not undergraduates but graduate students or University employees.