[1475] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Consequences of wider internet access and usage
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Charles_K._Kuhlman.MAN@rxg.xerox.c)
Thu Oct 10 11:07:18 1991
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1991 05:35:23 PDT
From: Charles_K._Kuhlman.MAN@rxg.xerox.com
To: com-priv@psi.com
Cc: edtjda@magic322.chron.com
Reply-To: CK.MAN@rxg.xerox.com
This relates to the latest thread(s) relating to Joe Abernathy and the *outside
world* looking into the Internet.
*What we have here is a failure to communicate*
Most of us have grown up on the Internet. Beginning at 17 or 18 years old as
college freshman (and womyn, please), we have had many years to develop our
network etiquete. Flames, bad tempers, and general grouchiness are all part of
the net. And we live with them. Now, along comes what we have been screaming
for --- improved access, more users, etc, etc. And these new users have no idea
of what the net is about, they just see us doing what has taken years of
practice. And they don't have the skills necessary to use electronic
communications.
I've written before that a lot of misunderstanding on the net comes from the
lack of verbal and non-verbal clues, facial expression, tone-of-voice, etc,
etc. It takes a lot of time and more than a few flames for those college
freshman (who are geared to learning) to understand and use the unwritten
internet code-of-conduct. Plus those young-uns are in an environment that has
gurus and experience to burn. And 24 hour access to the net with the
inclination to do so. They can ask questions off-line and depend on their
fellows to guide them through the rough spots until they are able to navigate
and use the net.
Imagine adults, most of whom have their brains set into a pattern that impedes
rapid learning. Now drop them into the Internet. Often in a situation where
they have limited help available. You get a lot of problems. Especially when
those adults are in a situation where they are a) trying to learn faster than
the K-12 crowd, b) do their regular jobs, and c) satisfy the parents and
pressure groups as well. Not my idea of fun. Those adults might just say *We
Quit* and shut off the net connection.
My note yesterday about *who really supports Joe* was not meant to challenge
him. I wanted to know the other side of the story. Why didn't I come out and
say so?? I fell back into the old (human) pattern of relying on face-to-face
communications skills. And forgot that I was typing a note to people who (for
the most part) don't know me and can't read between the lines of my writing. My
problem and my apologies.
Joe is right to wonder what is going to happen when newspapers have staff-wide
access to the net. If a respected journalist is bent on raking the muck out of
the net, it's going to happen. If a hack writer does so, look out.
What may be needed is for local net providers to include (about) a years of
training and hand holding on the *Wonders of the Internet* to new sites,
concentrating on the K-12 crowd. Sure, it's going to cost money. But consider
the good press we'd get. A few $$ spent on net training (we could volunteer our
time) would go a long way towards preventing kids from accessing the alt.*
groups. And preventing the Baptists or Hubbardites or Journalists or whomever
from zapping what is really a tremendous resource, warts and all.
Routers and T1 links do not a network make. You have to know how to use it or
the hardware investment means nothing. I'm not a human-to-human communications
specialist. This may be a problem for the social anthropology crowd. Those of
us who use the net had better start considering the human factors of wider
Internet access. Hardware is sexy, software gets the job done, but the wetware
is really the only thing that counts.
