David S. Filippi '94 didn't meet his first college girlfriend in a bar, in a section or at a party.

Instead, in January of his first year, Filippi was introduced to a female student at the University of New Hampshire over the Internet, a global data communication network. They talked twice a week by electronic mail before they saw each other for the first time a month later.

"Until it actually happened I would have thought it was the most ridiculous thing," Filippi says now of the romance, which lasted three months. "I still think it's pretty humorous.

Filippi is one of just thousands of undergraduates who have registered Harvard accounts which provide access to the Internet. According to University officials, 78 percent of students at the College have accounts, and they use the network to do everything: send e-mail to old friends, turn in problem sets, read the newspaper and even fall in love.

"I used to do a small amount of e-mail" says Steven W. Wardell '94-'95, who estimates he saves $15 a month on his phone bill by sending e-mail to his girlfriend in Texas. "But when you have a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. When you have e-mail, you start using it for everything you can."

In fact, interviews with about 100 faculty and staff members and nearly 150 students reveal that University affiliates are using e-mail and the network in unprecedented numbers and for increasingly complicated tasks. During this academic year alone, student usage of the network has doubled.

The increase has happened so fast, a two-month Crimson investigation found, that the University has so far been unable to answer new questions posed by what may be the most significant change in student life at Harvard since the institution of the core curriculum in 1979.

Simply put, the Internet is fundamentally altering the nature of communication and learning at Harvard University.

"People are more free to say things they wouldn't otherwise say," says Samuel A. Hilton '94 "It lets You speak your mind."

In fact, communication over the network--whether by e-mail or by posts to electronic newsgroups which can be accessed by anyone with an account--is unusually direct. Pleasantries and warm greetings often give way to frank comeons and biting criticisms.

"This can be an advantages," says Eugene E. Kim '96, president of the Harvard Computer Society. "You get right down to business. You can talk to strangers and have no qualms about it. In real life, if there are people sitting around talking about something, I'm not necessarily going to go up to them and interrupt."

Between 40,000 and 50,000 e-mail messages enter and leave Harvard's computer system every day, says William J. Ouchark, network manager for Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS).

But the University's computers are not yet able to handle the load. The speed of e-mail has slowed at times to the point where the U.S. PostalService moves faster. And on numerous occasions inrecent months, the overloaded Harvard computersconnected to the Internet have crashed.

Still, the network works well enough to satisfymost students, some of whom say they got computeraccounts out of fear that the future might bepassing them by.

"One day I realized that I didn't know muchabout the Internet," Wardell says. "I decided thatnow is the best time to embrace this because youcan either embrace this or be afraid of this, andI would rather embrace this."

"The new technology is coming up so fast," headds, "that if you don't catch up to speed todayit's going to be more difficult tomorrow."

E-mail is by far the most popularservice offered over the network. While overnightpackage delivery generally takes 17 hours, e-mailis virtually instantaneous. About 27 millionmessage travel over the Internet daily ,and thatnumber is increasing at such a pace that e-mailwill eclipse envelope-and-stamp "snail mail"within five years according to national estimates.

Jeff C. Tarr '96 says he sends 300 e-mailmessages a day.

"E-mail has gone crazy," says Tarr, a computerscience concentrator and past president of theHarvard Computer Society. "E-mail is becoming oneof the major things people do."

[E-mail] is going to continue to go through theroof," predicts Richards S. Steen, acting directorof HASCS, which is charged with maintaining thecomputer network.

Besides e-mail, students use Harvards' link tothe Internet to read electronic bulletin boardssuch as Usenet news, to join on-line discussiongroups and to carry on long-distance conversationson screen--all for free. They can accesseverything from 15th century commentaries onDante's Inferno top telephone directories.Students also may look for library books throughHOLLIS (Harvard's On-Line Library InformationSystem) or even find and run applications softwarefor their personal computers.

And provided that implementation proceeds asscheduled, all undergraduates will be able toconnect directly to the Internet through datajacks in their rooms by the end of this semester .Already about 750 students are hooked up to thenetwork from their dorm rooms, and Steen expectsthat number to double or triple by next fall.

First-Years

It is the Youngest members of the Harvardcommunity who use the network most often.

While only 66 percent of seniors have computeraccounts, 92 percent of all first-year studentsare on the Internet. Approximately 550 of the 750network connections installed so far belong tofirst-year students, according to Steen.

"We were surprised at the number of freshmenwho went right onto e-mail," says Ouchark,Harvard's network manager.

First-years quickly have made the network partof their daily lives. John A. Dooley '97 startseach morning by reading USA Today on the Internet.Angela W. Pan '97 regularly sends e-mail to herfriends and family in Taiwan. Aaron B. Brown '97has set up and run an electronic bulletin boardthat allows 30 members of his high school classfrom Cambridge-based Buckingham, Browne andNichols Schools to keep in touch.

To reach their first-year members, studentorganizations from the ultimate frisbee club tothe Salient, a conservative campusmagazine, are using newsgroups and e-mail forcommunications.

In addition, departments with tasks as largeand diverse as the Kennedy School of Governmentdevelopment office and the biostatisticsdepartment at the School of Public Health transmitinternal correspondence over the network.

Provost Jerry R. Green says he uses a Powerbookcomputer to link to the Internet as well as tocommunicate with colleagues and administrators.

"I probably answer ten e-mail message for everyphone call, just because it's much easier. I'm inmeetings all day and if I had to do it by phoneit'd be telephone tag," says Green, adding that"most of [the administrators] that I know are ine-mail."

Allen E. Janik, a monograph cataloguer at theDivinity Schools' Andover-Harvard TheologicalLibrary, said in an e-mail message to The Crimsonthat his library uses e-mail for "memos,information sharing, questions/answers, meetingagendas and minutes, social activities andpersonal messages."

Kyungmann Kim, a statistcian at the School ofPublic Health, says he reads news items ofinterest via Usenet and does some research usingvarious information servers available over thenetwork.

In addition, Many faculty members are using thenetwork in their classes. Assistant Professor ofComputer Science Margo I. Seltzer, who teaches herdepartment's introductory course, "ComputerScience 50," is one of several faculty members whorequire their students to have e-mail accounts.

Some courses such as "Literature and Arts B-77:Worlds of Music--Africa," have set up their ownnews groups for announcements and discussions, andteaching fellows and professors in virtually allfields communicate with their students overe-mail.

"It's pretty clear that within the next year orso some significant number of the faculty willwant to use computers in their work," says Dean ofthe Division of Applied Sciences Paul C. Martin,who co-chairs the Faculty of Arts and Sciencescommittee on information technology.

Martin says that even those professors who donot currently use the network may have to learnhow.

"Students have found it useful and effectivefrom the soundings we've done and the pulses we'vetaken," Martin says. "Once the vast majority ofstudents are using computers, they will tow theprofessors."

But with so many students crammingHarvard's stretch of the information superhighway,there have already been numerous traffic jams.Some undergraduates report that slowdowns on theHarvard computers connected to the Internet havedelayed e-mail messages for as long as five days.

"They're trying to put more users on but theirefforts to keep the system up to that level arejust not there," says Corwyn Y. Miyagishima '96,who is editor-in-chief of the Harvard ComputerReview. "Things are getting better but they arenot as good as they should be... They should justmake it so there isn't so much stress on thesystem."

David A. Sherwood '95, a transfer student fromColumbia who concentrates in computer science,says Harvard's computers are "very slow" incomparison with those he used at Columbia.

"The system is so slow here," Sherwood says."The main systems crash all the time. They areoverloaded."

Ouchark acknowledges that the University'ssystem is simply not equipped to handle thecurrent volume. He says that, for at least an houror two each week, the high volume of e-mail andother work on the network disrupts Harvard'ssystem. There is no immediate way to fix theproblem, Ouchark says.

"We're basically in a reactionary role,"Ouchark says. "We don't have the people or budgetresources to deal with it."

Steen the HASCS acting director, says he hasordered a second computer server--which should bein place within 45 days--to help increase thespeed of network.

The director says HASCS is going through"growing pains."

"It is difficult to anticipate future computerneeds, especially when use has increased sodramatically and unpredictably," he says.

Facilities Shortage

Currently, Harvard has 185 computer terminalsin the Science Center, 100 computers throughoutthe undergraduate houses and 25 laser printersaround the College for student use, according toSteen. MIT, in comparison, has 700 workstations.

But with computer usage at Harvard beingboosted by new students on the network, many saymore publicly accessible equipment is needed.

"Generally I think Harvard's computerfacilities are very inadequate," says Ishir Bhan'96, co-president of Digitas, an organizationdevoted to exploring emerging technologies. "Manytimes I've been in the Science Center and realizedthat there are too few computers and that they aretoo slow."

University officials say they recognize theproblem.

"There are not enough workstations," Oucharksays. "There is not enough room for workstations."

HASCS officials say they have little money tobuy new computers. Instead they are hoping thatmore students will begin to use the network fromtheir rooms thereby relieving the demand forcomputers in the Science Center and the houses.

But some veteran users predict that an increasein the number of students accessing the Internetfrom their rooms will also drive up demand forscience Center computers. More people, they say,will want to check their e-mail between classes orwhile they are away from their personal networkconnections.

Says Kim, the computer society president: "Iwould predict that usage of the Science Centercomputers is going to increase as a result ofincreased network usage."

Even as more students use the network,some frequent users say undergraduates are missingout by not learning how to make full use of thesystem.

Rolland W. Ho '97 business manager of theHarvard Computer Society, is one of severalstudents who warn of an "e-mail barrier." Manystudents use the network only for thecommunication possibilities of e-mail and don'tknow how to access the vast amounts of informationavailable to them, Ho says.

"We want to teach people more beyond thebasics, going beyond e-mail," Ho says. "I thinkthe majority--almost 60 percent or more--of peoplejust know how to log in and use e-mail. Eventhough people might want to find out more, theynot know where to do that."

At the same time, Kim says the increased numberof readers of Internet news, including the popularnewsgroup "harvard. general," indicates thatstudents are beginning to explore beyond e-mail.

"There are a lot of people who stop at e-mail,but that's been changing, "Kim says. "The biggestevidence of this is newsgroups at all. The amountof discussion that takes place on the newsgroupshas increased dramatically."

HASCS officials say that getting students onthe network and educating them about thepossibilities has become just as important as thetechnical job of maintaining hardware.

"It's Priority one," Ouchark says.

But for most students andadministrators, the primary pull of the networkremains personal. The network, it seems, allowsfor a freedom of expression that just isn'tpossible in the non-electronic world.

Some students have found that even the mostintimate encounters can occur over the network.Miyagishima, the computer review editor, says hebecame so close to a Wellesley College studentover IRC--the Internet's Relay Chat--that heeventually went out on a couple of dates with her.

"A couple of weeks ago we thought we should gettogether," Miyagishima says. "It was pretty muchthe same as I thought it would be. I knew she wasJapanese from her name. I had been told frompeople that she was pretty, and she was, in fact,pretty."

"I made a good friend," he says. "I probablywouldn't have met her otherwise. She has [another]boyfriend now."

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE SERIES:

REPORTERS AND EDITORS: TARA H. ARDEN-SMITH,ELIZABETH T. BANGS, ELIE G. KAUNFER, JOE MATHEWS,CHRISTOPHER ORTEGA, SARAH E. SCROGIN, JOHN E.STAFFORD, ETHAN M. TUCKER, ANNA D. WILDE.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMIE W. BILLETT

DESIGN BY SORELLE B. BRAUN, HYUNG Y. CHUNCrimsonSoRelle B. Braun