[10682] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
YA Death of the 'Net: TKO by Minitel??!!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Daniel P Dern)
Sat Mar 5 05:36:30 1994
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 12:27:34 -0500
From: ddern@world.std.com (Daniel P Dern)
To: lehous@vax.lse.ac.uk
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, injz@mcgillb.bitnet@vm1.mcgill.ca
This is in response to your "Death by Minitel" article, which
was passed along to the com-priv list where we discuss issues
of commercialization and privatization of the Internet.
I'm not going to do a point-by-point discussion of your article
(someone else may, so be prepared), but I would like to make a few
brief comments.
1. I have the feeling your knowledge of 'the Internet' is about as
comprehensive as my knowledge of Minitel (terminals instead of
phone books, it's become a mostly X-rated dating service, and other
possibly correct but misleading factoids); I fear this severely
limits the validity of your conclusions.
2. Surveys of several dozen readers of Network World regarding the
Internet aren't good source data.
3. Your paper sets up straw man arguments and then complains they
have feet of clay. The end-user BBS aspect of Minitel may be
meaningful but is Minitel seriously available for high-end activities
such as T1/E1 - T3/E3 inter-company distributed computing, etc?
4. You're welcome to point out that there is at present no "single
directory" for the Internet (modulo remarks from Peter Deutsch, etc);
in response, I'd be interested if you can show me a single directory
for all residential phone users in Europe.. and hey, I'm trying to
get Tim Berners-Lee's work phone number ... he's in Europe, somewhere,
surely you've got a directory encompassing all the universities and
companies, no? No? My mistake.
Similarly, your putative pot shots at Gopher, ftp, etc. all have
some sound basis, but your conclusions suggest you're driving in
cyberspace without turning your headlights on first.
Seriously, I'm sure there's a lot we (Internauts) _can_ learn
from Minitel et. al. Heck, my three minute look at the videotex
in England last year was depressing... depressing because I don't
know why we don't have its equivalent here in the U.S. ... But
I believe that the problems are deep and complex; turning the Internet
into "Minitelnet" won't suffice.
Cheers,
Daniel Dern (ddern@world.std.com) Internet author & technology/business writer
(617) 969-7947 Fax:(617) 969-7949 Snail: PO Box 309 Newton Centre, MA 02159
Author, The Internet Guide For New Users (McGraw-Hill, 1993)
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