PAN: The Performing Artists Network (SOS Nov 87)
Mark Badger sets his baud rate for the heart of the sun and goes 'on-line' to America to interview Perry Leopold, founder of PAN - a unique communications network for hi-tech musicians.
Mark Badger goes on-line to America to interview Perry Leopold, the founder of PAN, a special communications network for musicians.
Many of you will no doubt have read Richard Elen's highly informative articles about going 'on-line' in the January and February '87 issues of Sound On Sound. I felt that they warranted a follow-up article on one of the subjects of his discourse, PAN - or to give it its full title - the Performing Artists Network. I, along with Richard and a few dozen other UK residents, am a subscriber to this system, which currently has some 2,000 members worldwide.
To put it in a nutshell, PAN is some software which runs on a bunch of DEC Vax 780s. No, they aren't digital reverb units, they are mini-computers (as opposed to 'micro' or 'mainframe') and they are controlled by one Perry Leopold, the founder, housekeeper, and 'major domo' of the network. He is the SysOp, jargonese for 'system operator' - the boss man. PAN is essentially an electronic mail service, but because of the nature of the activities of its subscribers it has developed into far more than just a means of transferring letters electronically. It is a worldwide club, an information source, a debating society, an international MIDI users group, a storehouse for sound samples and patches, a news service, as well as a messenger service. We subscribers use our own personal computers, along with the gubbins (modem etc) mentioned in Richard's 'Music On-Line' articles, to phone in to the system and upload (send) or download (receive) data. It's all pretty simple stuff, though the technology is pretty recent. This article was intended to be an interview with Perry Leopold, conducted 'on-line'. I ended up interviewing a computer, some software, and some of the people who use it. In the course of our exchanges it became obvious that the system is the man. Perry designed the software which makes it work, his interests and intentions are reflected in the options that are available once you are connected. He monitors the system as we use it, offering welcome guidance to those lost in the recesses of the bit-stream.
