Brief History, Commentary

The HEEF was the first Health Education telecommunications service. It began as a Computer Bulletin Board, while the System Operator (SYSOP), now Webmaster, lived in Ames, Iowa, 1983!. Imagine this: the original system ran on an Apple //+ with a 300 baud modem. It had 64k (not mb) of RAM, and 300k (not mb) of disk space. As always it was a free service. Originally it was available during the hours of 7 and 11 p.m. every night. During the day, the SYSOP used the Apple //+ to write his dissertaion and a workbook he developed and co-authored for Random House Publishers, New York.

In its first six months, the HEEF had over 50 hits (people using their telephone lines to call directly into the computer) per week. Not much eh? Well....in 1983, how many people were connected to other computers?

By 1990, the HEEF was upgraded to include 5 -28.8 bps modems, 30gb of hard disk storage and 24 hour service. By the end of its run (stopped being a call-in BBS and moved to the Internet) it had accumulated over 30,000 calls, mostly from teenagers. The HEEF had very active bulletin boards and discussion centers on human sexuality and death and dying. Hackers (we had lots of software available), were very active on the HEEF.

There were very few calls from health educators.

The HEEF was designed for the health education profession.

Health Educators can Benefit from Synergy

The HEEF is funded independently. It has always relied heavily on input (documents, files) and support (donations, etc.) from health educators who wanted to be a part of developing this system.

Health Educators could donate whatever they want, without paying anything ever. Most of all,we always appreciated health educators who would call in and send something back, such as files to shar with others.

Not much has changed in 15 years: we still appreciate donations of any kind, preferably articles, files, and information.

The most importnat thing is this: If we all work togther, using our own independent thoughts, ideas, to make an independent system work, a synergistic effect will take place and our profession will benefit. We do not need to rely on the CDC! Rely on yourself; rely on your individuality, working with the other participating INDIVIDUALS!

Please remember that participating means getting something for your trouble, but also giving something back.

The HEEF has always been a public open forum.

The future:

A Sun MicroSystem will be purchased to house an even bigger and better health education system The Center of Excellence in Education for Health and HEEF will now offer services and product for the general public as well as to anyone interested in providing education for health services to others.

It will house:

The American Health Education Association

HEEF services

On-line courses and chat rooms

Job Bank

and the other current services.

Funding will come through affiliations with vendors as well as the sales of health education services and products from health educators who are registered members.

If you have a product or service to sell to other health educators or the public in general, let the WebMaster know. A Health Education store is now being built.

For more information, write to the CEEH/HEEF WebMaster: Michael Pejsach