[11337] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
re: Mosaic
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Larry Walker)
Tue Mar 29 20:20:28 1994
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 10:24:36 CST
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: walkerl@iscmed.med.ge.com (Larry Walker)
>"Mark R. Ludwig" <Mark-Ludwig@uai.com> wrote:
Larry> The problem I'm having is that people can't understand the
Larry> difference! You dial up somewhere, you get some menus, you move
Larry> around until you find what you want, you transfer it back to
Larry> your PC. "So what's wrong with a BBS?", they ask...
>What _is_ wrong with it? I'm not saying I like the idea of doing it
>this way, but it'll work, right? What's better about "Mosaic, etc."?
< stuff deleted...>
>You have no hope of fighting this belief with words, pictures, or any
>second-hand representation of the difference. You have to get them to
>experience it themselves. They have to be driving it with mouse in
>hand. Nothing else suffices.
>
>Put another way: think about why _you_ think Mosaic is better. I
>suspect you've used _both_.
Well, I'm embarrased to have to admit that I _haven't_ actually used Mosaic
hands-on myself yet, since we sit behind a firewall here. I'm arranging to
get access to an outside-the-firewall machine and do a demo later this
week. But meanwhile, I received some email from the folks setting up the
X.25-based BBS pilot:
>Some of our objectives for this are:
>1) RAISE REVENUE....which entails being able to identify billables and
> customers. Also deliver electronic product safely
>2) Ensure private transactions to some customers...
>3) Make simple for customers and for us to administer.
>
>These are the items that popped into mind based on my experiences with
>the internet but I am hopeful you will demo away my fears...
I read this 2 or 3 times, and decided that I was dead meat. There is no way
I can see that Mosaic can allow us to segregate information by customer, to
assure that one customer can't see information intended for another
customer, or to track usage by customer (and resource) to permit billing.
I think this is a topic worth raising in com-priv: How can commercial
services be offered (today) if these requirements cannot be met. And I
think it seems like a fundamental problem: IP is connectionless, and if my
packets can get routed to/from the Mosaic server, then I can get any info
on that server, right? X.25 is a connection-oriented service, and the
"server" can permit access and track usage on a per-login basis.
This seems to be a fundamental flaw in using the Internet for commercial
services today, and it seems as though that fundamental flaw is rather
inherent in the choice of IP as the underlying protocol.
All this is not news, it is inherent in the discussions that have been
going on here and elsewhere about commercialization of the Net. But somehow
it seems a lot more of a "Real Problem" now that I've run into it from the
bottom up, rather than just reading theoretical, top-down discussions on an
email-list...
larry
Larry Walker
System Architect email: walkerl@med.ge.com
GE Medical Systems phone: 414.785.8262
P.O. Box 414 / NB-902 fax: 414.785.4331
Milwaukee, WI 53201 dialcomm: 8*322-8262
*** There will be lots of roadkill on the Information Highway. ***
