SPIN and PROBE Bill Gaskill June 1993 SPIN, an acronym for School Practices Information Network, and PROBE, which may be an acronym, but I don't know for what, are two of the more obscure Scott, Foresman products for the TI-99/4A. SPIN is an on-line information service for educational institutions that first surfaced for the 99/4A in January 1983. PROBE is a tool for teaching BASIC programming that first surfaced for the 99/4A in August 1983. As far as I can determine, the Apple version of PROBE actually exists, and maybe versions for other computers, but I don't believe the 99/4A version ever went to market. Scott, Foresman no doubt dumped the project after TI's October 28th announcement to abandon the TI-99 Home Computer. SPIN: The School Practices Information Network was a CompuServe-like series of on-line educational data bases that Scott, Foresman purchased the rights to distribute from BRS Services. Subscriptions to SPIN were aimed at educational institutions ranging from elementary schools all the way up to colleges and universities. Services available to SPIN subscribers included access to educational data bases containing over 11 million documents in 15 education related areas such as: - Educational Resources Information File, - Bilingual Education Bibliographic Abstracts, - Exceptional Child Education Resources, - National Center of Educational Media and Materials for the Handicapped, - Resources in Vocational Education, and - Resources in Computer Education. Additionally, access to over 60 other inter-disciplinary data bases was offered, as well as an electronic newslettter, an on-line directory of other SPIN subscribers and Electronic Mail services. SPIN subscriptions were sold by authorized Scott, Foresman and Company dealers, not company salespeople. Scott, Foresman created an incentive program for dealers that allowed them to collect 50% of the initial subscription fee, then a percentage of the on-line charge for a minimum of 6 years. When a dealer sold a SPIN subscription, which were typically marketed to an elementary school, a middle school or a high school, subscribers were billed $150 by BRS Services. The dealer received $75 from that fee. As the subscriber used SPIN, they were charged $18 per hour for connect time, regardless of the services used during that connect time. Of this, for six years following the sale of the subscription, the dealer was paid $1.76 per hour. Then, whenever the subscriber searched a SPIF (School Practices Info File, one of the specific data bases listed above) data base, a $10 per hour SPIF royalty fee was charged in addition to the connect time fees. Of this, for the six year period following the sale of a subscription, the dealer received $2.35 per hour. Thus a subscriber paid $28 per hour to use the data bases, and $18 per hour to read the On-Line newsletter or to use the Electronic Mail facilities. Whew! And we complain about having to pay $7.95 per hour? According to Scott, Foresman statistics, provided to them by BRS, a dealer could expect to make $455.70 per subscriber over the six year period, with typical subscriber use. Of course, the more the subscriber used the services, the more money the dealer made. SPIN subscriptions were also available to postsecondary educational institutions such as colleges and universities, but the fees were higher. It follows though, that the dealer's incentives were higher too. I have no idea if SPIN still exists today, but my guess is that it would have had to change its pricing structure in order to stay in business if so. I can't imagine anyone paying $28 per hour today, just to search on-line data bases? However, as of early 1983 BRS claimed to have over 3500 subscribers. PROBE: As I stated earlier, I don't believe PROBE for the TI-99/4A ever made it to market. Nonetheless, there are some advertisements and other tidbits of information you can find in a couple of our 99/4A specific magazines that show it was at least planned for 99/4A release. For example, Publication Date Page ------------------------------- ----- ---- 99er Home Computer Magazine 08/83 91 Enthusiast 99 11/83 18 Enthusiast 99 01/84 2 The January 1984 Enthusiast 99 ad is perhaps the most informative of the lot because it shows the PROBE packaging and materials, but what is displayed in the ad was created for the Apple computer. If you look close you can see the "For Use with the Apple II Microcomputer" text next to the COMPUTER COMMANDS line in the lower portion of the ad. The same ad also tells the reader that PROBE is/was available for six popular personal computers, but it doesn't list the names of those computers. The PROBE product was apparently available in four different age levels, ranging from 5 years to adult. I assume that this had something to do with the ability to read as much as anything else, plus the ability to understand the concepts necessary to program a computer. According to the information I have, which is extremely limited, the PROBE package contained a student workbook, an instructor's edition, screen grids, a wall chart and the PROBE program disk. Unfortunately, I have no information on the price of the product. Hopefully some reader of this article will be able to shed more light on this unique, but obscure Scott, Foresman product. =eof=