The first few subscribers to KIDSPHERE included teachers from the K-12 community, university educators, students, and interested parents. As readership has grown, the range of professional interests represented on the list has also grown, to the point that the group includes a significant fraction of all people interested in the development of computer networks for children and teachers and involves people with the full range of skills that will be needed for the effective implementation of these networks.
Teachers. Classroom teachers are the mainstay of KIDSPHERE's readership. The group has been particularly hospitable to teachers who have just acquired online access and who are just beginning to explore the educational promise of the Internet. It is a place for them to ask "how to" questions about the technology, to find collaborators for their initial uses of the network, and to learn about successful ways of expanding network activities throughout their schools and school districts.
Networking experts. Whether they have joined as interested parents or as consultants interested in finding a new set of clients, there are many people with considerable networking expertise who read and contribute to KIDSPHERE discussions. As a result one can count upon the technical discussions within the group as being well-informed and up-to-date. In fact, one can chart the evolution of teachers who have taken an interest in technology to the point where they, too, qualify as networking experts and begin to take on consulting tasks for their own school district or for other school districts in their region. Typically these teachers have taken technical courses at local universities and consulted the growing literature on wide-area networks, but KIDSPHERE has been a significant component of their education.
Vendors. This group overlaps with the group of networking experts. It includes people who work for companies which manufacture the hardware and software needed to make the network function. Typically these people have joined the mailing list as interested parents, although there are some companies who are targeting the networked educational market and who use mailing lists such as KIDSPHERE as a means of reaching their intended customers. As more publishers begin to use the Internet as a distribution mechanism, one can expect this group to grow in numbers considerably.
Students. University students, particularly those seeking teaching credentials, have found KIDSPHERE a good place to get a window into the world of K-12 education. And high school students who have found the network a hospitable place for exploration, like to be able to offer their teachers advice on a number of issues.
Government. Education and government are two areas in which the most rapid growth of Internet use is occurring. In many cases people from government who subscribe to KIDSPHERE do so as interested parents, but they also recognize the useful interplay between their own professional activities and those of the schools
Funders. As more and more foundations discover the utility of the Internet to coordinate their own programs and to bring resources to communities in which they would like to encourage new initiatives, people who work for these foundations monitor discussion groups such as KIDSPHERE for innovative ideas and for the names of innovative individuals and the location of innovative programs. As a result of their presence on the network, it is not unheard of for people to propose a new activity and receive a response along the lines of "We would like to fund this for you." Obviously this is another nice element of the community-building that KIDSPHERE has helped to initiate.
Parents. This group includes many of the people already listed, as well as others with a broad range of interests and a range of information of value to teachers undertaking network projects in subjects which cross the entire curriculum. The awareness among parents of the educational value of the Internet is the key to public funding of educational programs on the network and the key to local initiatives to gain access to these programs and to other resources on the network.
Far more important than a list of the categories of people who take part in KIDSPHERE is the way in which these people interact. The tone of online exchanges is not that of teacher appealing to an expert for advice on technical question "X." Rather it is a matter of teachers and experts and others discussing an educational problem which might involve "X" as a solution, or in mentioning how "X" was used in one environment and noticing that it might be equally valid in another environment. The group functions in an egalitarian manner, allowing the expression of the extraordinarily broad range of talents and interests of its members.