[12726] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: FYI: libraries
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Karl Denninger)
Fri May 27 06:29:00 1994
From: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
To: SEAN@sdg.dra.com (Sean Donelan)
Date: Thu, 26 May 1994 13:44:35 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <940525221500.aa5@SDG.DRA.COM> from "Sean Donelan" at May 25, 94 10:15:00 pm
> Libraries and the NREN/NII/GII/Infobahn. It seems like every cable,
> telephone, multimedia, politician, and public interest group seems
> to want the library community to sign on to their plan. They promise
> to provide all sorts of perks to libraries in exchange for their
> support. For example, Southwestern Bell Telephone promised to build
> a wonderful fiber-optic network connecting all the schools, hospitals
> and libraries in Missouri. The catch was Southwestern Bell Telephone
> wants to keep several million dollars they've made in "excess"
> revenue. Oh, and it turned out that "free" fiber network for schools,
> hospitals, and libraries would require about $25,000 in equipment
> per site plus $1,800 per site per month in other costs. The fiber
> is the cheap part.
>
> Libraries, schools, and hospitals should be very wary of strangers
> bearing gifts.
Oh, I don't know. MCSNet and the North Suburban Library System here in the
Chicago area have recently done a deal to provide Internet services to
libraries and the general public in the area.
Did we give it to them "free". No.
Did they get a nice price based on the size of the community being served
(this is a large contract for us)? You bet they did.
In fact, you can get to some of those resources <right now>. Telnet to
nslsilus.org and you'll get to the first service point online under this
agreement, and you're able to browse their consolidated CDROM catalog and
use other items...
I guess that caution doesn't really apply to them however -- we weren't
bearing gifts, just a good deal in a competitive marketplace.
--
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Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - The Finest Internet Connectivity
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