[10507] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Debating the NII "Truisms"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dick St.Peters)
Fri Feb 25 18:18:05 1994
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 18:08:50 EST
From: stpeters@spare-parts.crd.ge.com (Dick St.Peters)
To: bzs@world.std.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Reply-To: <stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com>
> KEEP THE GOVT OUT OF THE CONTENT BUSINESS! For your own and everyone
> else's sake.
I want to take issue with this. I accept most of the points Barry
raises, but they only tell me that the government should not become
the *only* provider of content.
The government is already in the content business, has been for
decades, probably since the founding of the nation.
First, an apology to our non-US friends. We are aguing among ourselves
here, sorry to bother you with all this.
Maps. Who has never used a US Geological Survey map?
Weather data. The government collects it for us from many sources;
we've relied on that for a long time.
Mapplethorpe was an issue only because the government did *not* fund
him; if he's an argument against government content, everything the NEA
has funded is an argument for it.
I can work in a smoke-free place because the government provided the
data to counter the tobacco lobby.
The Center for Disease Control plays an important role in identifying
and countering disease outbreaks.
The EDGAR database we've heard so much about. Crop estimates. Air,
land, and water quality assessments. Crime statistics. Economic data.
Census data. Technical data. Hell, even information *about* government.
The government has a lot of content we want.
--
Dick St.Peters, Gatekeeper
The Pearly Gateway; currently at:
GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com
