[11759] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: In the matter of advert
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dan Lynch)
Mon Apr 18 01:17:58 1994
Date: 17 Apr 1994 19:15:12 -0800
From: "Dan Lynch" <dlynch@zdexpos.com>
To: WALTHOWE@delphi.com
Cc: "Com Priv" <com-priv@psi.com>
Reply to: RE>>In the matter of adverti
Walt, Thank you for your reply and your facts and your honesty and your final
exasperation about some dumb humans who just don't play by the golden rule.
The problem with the Internet is that it is just getting to be too big of a
playpen. I liken it to an experience I had in my early adulthood when I moved
from my birthplace (Los Angeles!) to a hick town in New Mexico (Alamogordo).
In Alamogordo there was one murder a year. it made the headlines for a week or
so and everyone was fascinated. In LA there were a few murders a day and some
of them made the papers every week. I thought LA was a terrible place to live
and Alamogordo was a wonderful place to live. But, I was also a mathematician
and recognized the ratios were similar. But each town had only one "clarion",
one newspaper. So in LA it looked pretty bloody because all those murders had
to share the same channel. (TV has the same situation and CNN has only made it
"worse".) Now we have the Internet and have to figure out how it will play
into our societies. The Internet has definitely had a "culture". With so many
newcomers it may develop a new one or it may coerce/tease/convert newcomers to
adopt the old culture. I suggest that if the old timers (of which I am one)
want to preserve the old ways,we have to encourage all the "gatekeepers" like
Walt at Delphi to do as Delphi is doing. It's our best chance, I think.
Dan
