Computer Review to Be Published on Internet's 'Web' Today

In what magazine staffers called a first for a Harvard student group, today's issue of the Harvard Computer Review will be published over the Internet, a global data communication network.

All students with software that accesses the World Wide Web can read the computer review, according to Eugene E. Kim '96, president of the Harvard Computer Society, the group that publishes the magazine.

Undergraduates with University accounts on the Internet can access the magazine by typing "/scratch/lynx http://hcs/" when they reach the "husc" prompt on their computers.

"We're doing some revolutionary stuff here," Kim said. "We're putting something on the web."

Kim called the first issue an "experiment" which the computer society would work to improve.

But Jeff C. Tarr '96, founder of the student technology groups Digitas, said the computer review's claim to be first is misleading. He said his group put out a publication, Elektra, over the web on March 21. Elektra, Tarr said, is updated constantly.

But Tarr still praised to new on line computer review.

"I think it's a great idea that the computer review is electronic," Tarr said. "I would like to see other organizations move to the electronic platform."

The magazine's editor, Crowyn Y. Miyagishima '96, said putting the magazine on-line was not a difficult. He said another member of the computer society wrote a simple program which allowed the magazine to be published on the web.

"It's actually rather easy," Miyagishima said.

Kim said web software will soon be included in the standard network package available to undergraduates.

The "web," as Internet users call it, refers to a way that graphics, sound and other computer media may be accessed over the network.

"What we're trying to do is to give Harvard students something to give them an incentive to use this powerful new technology," Kim said.

Miyagishima said the first on-line issue contains reviews of CD-ROM software and a shareware program that allows people to communicate on the computer by voice. He said the magazine would also have an article about the use of the Internet during disasters like January's Los Angeles earthquake.

"We haven't reached the full potential of on-line magazines at this point," Kim said, "but this is start."