Journalists are gaining an unprecedented ability to tap into some 15 million of the world's best sources through an information tool known as the Internet. Simply put, the Internet is a "network of computer networks," in which military bases, research facilities, universities, and others have agreed to let their computers share information. It served this tightly knit community, and evolved,for some twenty years. Then, at the end of 1991, Congress gave it a boost by appropriating money to turn it into what Al Gore, a major backer, calls the "information superhighway" of the future, a catalyst for economic and cultural progress.

Former Senator Gore's High Performance Computing Act is transforming the Internet into a grand nationalal research and education network, which proponents claim will give rise to a new era of economic strength, through classrooms and laboratories without walls and, quite possibly, access to supercomputers for small business of all kinds.

While some of these applications are futuristic, Congress soon will be voting on legislation -- the so-called Window on Government bill -- that would quickly and dramatically improve access to government information, mandating that the Internet be used as an at-cost means of redistributing nearly every scrap of information the government gathers. This would include pending legislation, daily press briefings, technical reports, corporate filings, perhaps even the huge databases now being sold for hundreds of dollars per hour of access.

Even without the Window bill, the Internet is a valuable tool for journalists. Traditional computer bulletin boards allow a single computer to connect to another or let a number of computers connect to one host system.

The Internet, by contrast, allows many computers to access many other computers concurrently. Once you have an account on any machine connected to the net you can make remote use of any other machine connected to the net, anywhere in the world. You might remotely access the catalog of of the City University of New York library, the White Sands Missile Range library of computer software, or a repository of pending legislation. There are thousands of databases and information repositories on the net, most of them free, in addition to thousands of topical discussion groups, some of which include top experts.

Already connecting up to 15 million users in more than forty countries, the Internet is growing by 15 percent a month, and has been for a number of years. "Anyone with a remote specialty that has any academic or research interest in it ought to be on the net, period," says Dan Gillmor, regional affairs writer at the Detroit Free Press. He likens the process to "connecting the dots all around the world."

Internet does have a down side. "There's an awful lot of junk out on the Internet, and it's very difficult separating the wheat from the chaff," says John Burgess, computer writer for The Washington Post. "It's not user friendly." For one thing there is no real index or user's manual. But several recent books should help (see below).

The basic services offered on the Internet include electronic mail, databases, text and software libraries which allow you to copy a document or computer program onto your local computer, real-time roundtable chats involving people from around the world, and more formal "newsgroups" -- discussions divided into several thousand topics of interest.

These newsgroups are what give the Internet its sense of community. They are where the community goes to work and play, and they're where you will find most of the experts you'll want to interview. Specific newsgroups include topics such as computer-assisted research and reporting, the space shuttle, AIDS and various areas of medicine, as well as groups tied to newsevents, such as the presidential campaign. These newsgroups are similar to a wire service, in which users contribute material they consider worth sharing.

Some newsgroups have shaped history. During the Soviet coup attempt, the hard-liners were savvy enough to seize television stations and newspaper offices, but the Internet escaped their notice, and it became an important organizational tool of the resistance. Tens of thousands of net users around the world looked on as this real-world drama unfolded. More recently, the Clinton campaign used a special newsgroup to spread position papers and to build an online repository of the candidates' collected statements so that network users could retrieve what they missed.

To get into the Internet you need, along with the ususal computer, modem, and telephone line, a road map: Try Zen and the Art of Internet, by Brendan Kehoe, Prentice Hall; The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog, Ed Krol, O'Reilly & Associates Inc.; The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking, by Tracey LaQuey with Jeanne C. Ryer, Addison Wesley; or The Internet Guide for New Users, by Daniel Dern, McGraw-Hill.

You also need an account on a machine that connects to the net. This will range in cost from free to several thousands of dollars, depending on capabilities and geographical region.

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