[2128] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Trickle Down? How About Bubble Up?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Mon Jan 27 20:59:39 1992
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 92 20:58:36 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: vaf@Valinor.Stanford.EDU
Cc: emv@msen.com, stef@nma.com, com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: Vince Fuller's message of Mon, 27 Jan 92 17:34:11 PST <CMM.0.90.2.696562451.vaf@Valinor.Stanford.EDU>
>Note that BARRNet is a non-profit organization, so it's not like we're
>trying to gouge the market, either.
Not to be contentious, but that's a non-sequitar. Non-profit just
means you don't distribute profits to shareholders. It doesn't mean
you are constrained to charge less for goods and services somehow
(ever comparison shop coffee mugs from NPR or your local museum versus
Woolworth's?)
I believe you in spirit, however. But it doesn't follow from being a
non-profit.
I also agree that people do not understand how labor-intensive it is
to support many "little" customers and why that makes exactly what
they want so difficult to deliver. 500 customers at $100/month
represent the same revenue as 50 customers at $1000/month. But the
overheads are dramatically different.
In fact, the 500 customers usually require more per-connection
hand-holding than each of the 50 customers do (mostly due to the
nature of low-ball equipment and software, and its tendency to be not
quite to spec.)
-Barry Shein
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