Welcome to Argonne National Laboratory and the Division of Educational Programs electronic bulletin board system (BBS) called NEWTON BBS. This bbs was established in November, 1991. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is located approximately 40 km (25 miles) southwest of downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA. ANL is a multipurpose research laboratory, owned and operated by The University of Chicago, for the United States Department of Energy (US-DOE). Division of Educational Programs.

The Division of Educational Programs (DEP) promotes science education, both at Argonne and around the world, by sponsoring educators and students for ANL appointments and many other educational experiences (i.e., workshops, fairs, mentorships, etc.).

NEWTON BBS

The primary purpose of NEWTON BBS is to promote math, computer, and science education via teacher networking. The primary users are teachers in these fields. This does not exclude other users and uses, but promoting math, computer, and science education will govern all allocation of resources and future features and developments of NEWTON BBS . This BBS is an open system; users are allowed to register on-line and gain access to the system free of charge. The NEWTON BBS user base consists of teachers and students. Students are allowed to use NEWTON BBS, but if their use inhibits access by the primary users, their access to NEWTON BBS will be restricted. These types of decisions are determined by the NEWTON BBS management.
The NEWTON BBS management consists of two parts: the NEWTON BBS Advisory Board, and DEP's NEWTON BBS Project Management. NEWTON BBS grew from the conception of teachers involved in the Argonne Community of Teachers (ACT). ACT is a network of teachers, organized by ANL's DEP to promote math, science, and computer education. This group's idea to electronically network to exchange ideas and files for its newsletter has given birth to NEWTON BBS. As the founding organization, the majority of the moderating on NEWTON BBS is done by members of this group. It is important to note that these moderators are volunteers. Most of the time spent by ANL-DEP staff on maintenance and operation activities is done on personal time as well. The NEWTON BBS Advisory Board consists of the moderators of NEWTON BBS, the members of the ACT BBS sub-committee, and one or more members of the DEP-NEWTON BBS Project staff. This board functions to make recommendations concerning NEWTON BBS to the DEP- NEWTON BBS Project Management. The DEP-NEWTON BBS Project management group consists of members of DEP's NEWTON BBS Project. This include the system operators (SYSOP) and the NEWTON BBS Program Coordinator. The final decisions related to NEWTON BBS are made by this group.

Access to NEWTON BBS

World Wide Web (WWW) - NEWTON BBS can be reached through the WWW Universal Resource Locator (URL) of http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov and follow instructions.


Features

NEWTON BBS offers a multitude of services. The following is a listing of some of the principal offerings. NEWTON BBS's basic features (available to everyone):
1) Ask A Scientist - an area where you can drop off a question which will be answered by an scientist. Or, you can just read the responses to other user's questions. Or, search for a specific topic.
 
NEWTON BBS AGREEMENT

The success of NEWTON BBS completely relies on its users. NEWTON BBS is an educational community. As part of this community, all NEWTON BBS users must obey certain rules. These rules fall into two major categories: legal and social. As a user of telecommunications, computers, and BBS's, certain rules (laws) govern your rights and the rights of the operators. These laws are local, state, federal, and in many cases international. All of these laws apply to \NEWTON BBS users. Some examples of areas these laws cover are: copyright, abuse (verbal/written/drawn), and threats. NEWTON BBS is operated by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). Argonne is operated by The University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract W-31-109-ENG-38. As such the following rules apply:


NEWTON BBS Rules

1) Only acceptable language and content will be permitted in all areas.
2) All information (text, files, graphics, etc.) must be educationally appropriate.
3) Users must not abuse their privileges of open and free access to NEWTON BBS. These abuses can occur by having multiple accounts, staying on-line for long periods of time, or not logging off in order to hold a port.
4) Users must sign on with their real name.
5) The user is responsible for the verification of ownership and copyright of all original or altered uploaded/downloaded messages, files, and other information on this system. The NEWTON BBS Project Management reserves the right to remove any users from the BBS.


NEWTON BBS's privacy policy

1) The NEWTON BBS administration reserves the right to inspect and remove private e-mail, chat, and other forms of person to person communication (e.g. - files) if either party to the communications is suspected of violating any rule.
2) The NEWTON BBS administration reserves the right to inspect, remove, and edit any forms of communication if the communication is suspected of violating any of the rules.


DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY

Documents available from this server were prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the U.S. Government. Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency thereof, nor the University of Chicago, nor any of their employees or officers, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. You agree that we will not be responsible to you for any indirect, consequential, special or punitive damages or losses you may incur in connection with our system or any of the data or other materials transmitted through or residing on our system, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damage or loss. In addition, you agree to defend and indemnify us and hold us harmless from and against any and all claims, proceedings, damages, injuries, liabilities, losses, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys fees) relating to any acts by you or materials or information transmitted by you in connection with our system leading wholly or partially to claims against us or our system by other callers or third parties.


DISCLAIMER OF ENDORSEMENT

Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of document and message authors do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Government or any agency thereof, Argonne National Laboratory, or the University of Chicago. COPYRIGHT STATUS ANL owns certain things you will find on this system, including the look and feel of the system, the name of our system, and the collective work copyright in sequences of public messages on our system. Documents and Messages authored by Argonne National Laboratory employees resulted from work under U.S. Government contract W-31-109-ENG-38 and are subject to the following license: the Government is granted for itself and others acting on its behalf a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in these documents to reproduce, prepare derivative works, and perform publicly and display publicly by or on behalf of the Government. Users may download materials from NEWTON BBS with the understanding that the ownership of all materials must be identified even if the materials are modified for personal use. The US-DOE, ANL, DEP, and the DEP- NEWTON BBS management cannot assume any responsibility for uploaded materials that are copyrighted by other entities. WARNING Any unauthorized access to this system is prohibited and is subject to criminal and civil penalties under Federal Laws (including but not limited to Public Laws 83-703 and 99-474). Individuals using this system are subject to having all activities on this system monitored by system or security personnel. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring.


RESOLUTION

By going ahead and signing on to NEWTON BBS you are agreeing with everything above. Also, you are notified that this agreement may change at any time and your continued use of NEWTON BBS after changes certifies your agreement to the changes. Please send questions or comments regarding information in this agreement to: help@ newton.dep.anl.gov. A copy of this agreement will be located under the Information Center.