PROSPECTUS FOR THE BAY AREA HOME TERMINAL CLUB

	The  object  of the Bay Area Home Terminal Club is to provide
for its members home computer terminal services at minimal cost. This
cost will not be small, unfortunately.  A target is $75 per month not
including communication or the terminal itself.  The club  is  to  be
formed on the following basis:

	1.   A time-sharing computer will be operated by the club. It
is not yet clear whether to try for a PDP-10 class computer or settle
for a computer of PDP-11 class.

	2. Services provided on the computer will include:

		a.  Editing and file storage.  We will shoot for file
storage at low marginal cost, i.e. low enough so that members will be
able to keep substantial personal files in the system.

		b. Light computation.

		c. Games.

		d. News service like the Stanford AI Lab news service
now based on the A.P. and New York Times.

		e.      Getting  into other data bases via a flexible
dial-out service.

		f. Message  service  among  subscribers  and  message
service to other suitably equipped installations including ARPA net.

		g.     Access to whatever computer based reservation
systems will let us communicate directly with their computer.

		h.    Whatever  computer  aided  instruction  can  be
provided.

		i. Reading whatever books we have in our file library
or can access from other files.

		j. Facilities for conducting written discussions.

		k. Bulletin board services and ads from participating
stores.

		z.    Whatever  else  can  be  programmed  and  seems
cost-effective.

	3.     The club will start with no full time employees.   All
management will be provided by the elected  executive  committee  and
officers,  and  services  will  be  provided  by  members of the club
according to their competence.      All  programming  will  be  on  a
voluntary  basis.   Hardware maintenance will be on a per call basis,
but an attempt will be made to get people on call  for  a  rebate  of
club  services.    The club will try to locate its computer in loaned
quarters.

	4.  Communication between the home terminals and the computer
will  be by dial-up or leased line according to the preference of the
member.

	5.  The club will help its members  bargain  to  purchase  or
lease  terminals  on  the  best  possible  terms,  but  it  will  not
ordinarily own more than a few terminals that will be rented  out  in
case  of  emergency.   Perhaps  the  club will be able to instigate a
suitable terminal design.

	6.  The club's computer will normally be operated unattended.
Printout  will  be  available  if  a member comes and gets it or when
there is someone on hand.     There will  be  a  printer  capable  of
producing report quality output.

	7.   While  no  programming will be paid for at first, if and
when there are enough members so that the costs  go  down  enough  to
make it feasible, royalties may be paid for programs in proportion to
use inluding royalties for programs written while the system is still
operated on a voluntary basis.

	8. The first steps are:

		a.   Organize  a  preliminary  committee  and issue a
revised version of this prospectus and get it publicized.

		b. Get an estimate of the number of potential members
at different cost levels.

		c.   Hold a well-publicized meeting, choose officers,
and form a planning committee.

		d.    Form a variety of plans with cost  and  service
estimates.  Get prospective suppliers to submit proposals.

		e.  Form a financial structure, choose a plan and get
started.

	The reason for trying  a  co-op  of  this  kind  rather  than
getting  a  company  to  do it or trying for a demonstration grant of
some kind are:   time-sharing companies have  selling  and  personnel
costs  up to eight times the computer costs; setting up this activity
and doing the programming is enough fun so that the  volunteer  labor
can  probably  be  had;  adding services to a time-sharing system can
conveniently be done by volunteers working at home; since in spite of
all  this,  the  costs  to  the  user  will  be substantial, there is
essentially no prospect of government or foundation subsidy.

	Anyone interested in helping form and operate the club should
contact John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, Calif. 
94305 or ARPANET JMC  at SU-AI.   Remember that it probably  won't be
cheap, but living groups that can share  a terminal can probably also
share  a membership.   Prospective members  need not all  be computer
experts, but we will need a lot of these. 

	This document is on file HOTER.BAY[PUB,JMC]:SU-AI in the file
system at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.