[10154] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Cost, Noise, and com-priv
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim Salo)
Wed Feb 9 14:55:14 1994
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 94 11:31:13 -0600
From: tjs@msc.edu (Tim Salo)
To: com-priv@psi.com
In response to a recent submission to com-priv, I received a number of
automated "bounced mail" responses, including one 49 kB message.
Apparently, some who have submitted mail to com-priv recently consider
these "bounced mail" messages to have a non-zero "cost" to the submitter.
At the same time, some of the postings to com-priv give the impression,
presumably mistaken, that writer had less information content than
many readers hope or expect, (i.e., the signal-to-noise ratio problem).
I applaud PSI's recent social experiment of assigning a non-zero
"cost" to submissions to com-priv. It will be interesting to see
how this "cost" will change the character of com-priv. Will those
with real information content post in spite of the "cost?" Will
those with less-than-average information content post in spite
of the "cost?"
I hope PSI will publish their research results. (Perhaps someone can
even get a Masters thesis out of this...)
-tjs
