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."