[1448] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: So what is the answer?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (halcyon!ralphs@sumax.seattleu.edu)
Tue Oct 8 23:52:16 1991
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: halcyon!ralphs@sumax.seattleu.edu
Date: Tue, 08 Oct 91 20:13:54 PDT
sumax!magic322.chron.com!edtjda (Joe Abernathy) writes:
> That business of "so don't take those newsgroups" sounds good,
> if it worked. Of course, it doesn't. I can think of no less
> than four alternate methods to get to controversial material
> in the absence of a usenet feed. Shut 'em all down and you've
> got no net left.
But in the case of a K-12 environment, the folks who administer the
system have the ability (or should) to control what flows in an out
of their monitors and keyboards. In this setting, an introduction
the myriad of Internet services is quite a treasure in itself, what
with White Pages, WAIS, talk, phone, etc., and keeping those resources
from the community that might best benefit from them would appear not
to be in the best interests of all concerned.
The same argument exists for the youth, who in the comfort of the
family home, discovers 'questionable' materials on the net. Should
not the supervision of this individual be left to the parents, and
not to the net in question? Should not, then,the supervision of the
school youth using the Internet best be left to the instructor?
Perhaps we're attempting to educate the wrong people.
I'm sure you are aware that the alt groups are not 'mainstream' Usenet
and, in fact, are not carried by the majority of Usenet sites and not
even by all of the 'roadways' of the Internet. The analogy of killing
the messenger for delivering the message might be drawn, when writing
your articles; as you become more aware of what the Internet and all
its ramifications is about, the more you should be one of its activists
instead of one of its doomsayers. Unfortunately, your reputation has
preceeded you, but we are still hopeful...
