[2072] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
NREN and the Economics of Mainframes Versus Workstations
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU)
Thu Jan 23 17:50:30 1992
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 92 17:45:36 EST
From: drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU
To: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9201231417.AA17629@sci.sci.ccny.cuny.edu> "dan@sci.ccny.cuny.edu"
In-Reply-To: <UdTgcbq00io2A6pEkc@andrew.cmu.edu>
From: Marvin Sirbu <ms6b+@andrew.cmu.edu>
CMU charges installation costs for connection of a faculty workstation
to the campus network, but provides public clusters of workstations,
file and printing services, and consulting services, at no charge.
My suspicion is that deparmental workstations are cheaper than central
mainframes because mainframes are typically run as labor-intensive,
high-value-added operations -- professional staff to feed the
printers, user consultants, etc. As people come to not need such
services, computer centers will either have to cut staff, become
obsolete, or retreat to only servicing users who need and can afford
such services.
Actually, the model that comes to mind is early automobiles.
Rolls-Royce decided to not go into mass production because their
investigation showed that autos could never become a mass-consumption
item: There would never be enough chauffer-mechanics to drive them.
Name: Dan Schlitt
My experience with university computer centers is that the cost recovery
model was phony. The computer center had costs that were pretty well fixed
and the total amount had to be "recovered".
Which leads to horrible problems when usage goes down -- since the
costs to be recovered are fixed, as usage goes down, rates go up. So
more people abandon the mainframe, causing rates to go up further.
The ultimate result is an explosive abandonment of the computer
center, unless higher authorities intervene. (I'm told that something
like this happened at Stanford.)
Name: Dan Schlitt
The fixed annual charge model that has been so sucessful in building
the Internet is also the best model for providing computational
resources in an academic institution.
In the early stages of building the Internet, "building" is almost
synonymous with "increasing usage". The best way to increase usage is
to make it a free good -- that is, no marginal cost to the person who
decides whether to use. That's why highways tend to drain people from
mass transit -- once you've bought a car, there's little marginal cost
to making another trip.
Dale Worley Dept. of Math., MIT drw@math.mit.edu
--
Cyberspace, in its present condition, has a lot in common with the 19th
Century West. It is vast, unmapped, culturally and legally ambiguous,
verbally terse (unless you happen to be a court stenographer), hard to get
around in, and up for grabs. Large institutions already claim to own the
place, but most of the actual natives are solitary and independent,
sometimes to the point of sociopathy. It is, of course, a perfect breeding
ground for both outlaws and new ideas about liberty.
-- John Perry Barlow
