[1022] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: The question is ...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John S. Quarterman)
Tue Jul 16 12:20:24 1991
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 00:03:53 cdt
From: jsq@tic.com (John S. Quarterman)
To: com-priv@psi.com
>The net doesn't create new forms of behavior.
>Rather it creates cheaper, faster and easier ways of expression.
>As the cost comes down, more and more points of view can be expressed.
>Even shareholders of company can't complain to the management
>of the company like any user on the net can flame the organizations
>that run the net, or anything else on which they care to comment.
Would you care to reconcile these two statements?
If people do things they didn't do before, because they used to be
difficult and expensive, but are now cheap and convenient, how is
that not new behavior?
Also, computer mediated communication permits many-to-many
communication, which is something that was not possible by any previous
communications medium (newspapers, magazines, radio, and television are
broadcast; post, telephone, and fax are one to one). Telephone
conference calls and face to face meetings were about the closest
equivalents to the scale of many way communication that can be achieved
through mailing lists, newsgroups, and related media.
Could this not lead to more accountability? Would that count as
a change in behavior?
>This is sometimes upsetting to traditional organizations
>that aren't used to such vigorous questioning.
Indeed. And those who understand the networks need to be able to explain
them to such traditional organizations in ways they understand, in order
to avoid unnecessary adverse reactions.
John S. Quarterman
jsq@tic.com
Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc.
701 Brazos Suite 500
Austin, Texas 78701
512-320-9031
fax: 512-320-5821
