[2778] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
The fate of Internet, further comments
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU)
Mon Jun 1 16:14:27 1992
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 92 16:12:26 EDT
From: drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: JIM DOWNEY <JDOWNEY@rcnvms.rcn.mass.edu>
>1. The Internet will become truly world-wide: [...]
At this point in time the picture you paint does not seem likely to
begin for at least another 5 years...
Probably so, but I'm going to spend most of the rest of my life more
than 5 years from now, so I think that true internationalization will
an important part of the future.
>2. The bulk of the Internet will be in support of commercial
>activities: [...]
I advocate against commercialization... strongly and without question of
my reasoning... The way that the commercialization is being approached is
through a complete conversion... I watch the planning and realize it is
scheming in guise... My critics contend I'm paranoid on this point, but I
recall the poster that said, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean
they are not out to get you."
>3. The Internet will be sold as a service for a fee, rather than being
>delivered by a club-like consortium effort between a small number of
>widely scattered users.
A huge mistake...
(Well, not be be snide, but why are you here? If you're against
commercialization and privatization of the Internet, why are you on
the mailing list to advocate and plan commercialization and
privitization?)
On a policy level, I consider the Internet to provide one of the most
important communication technologies of the last few decades, and to
prevent businesses (that is, the economy) from using it would be
rather suicidal. Certainly, our competitors won't make that mistake.
That's not to say that there aren't better and worse ways to go about
it. And there will be plenty of looting for whoever is adept enough
at doing so. But it's one thing to say that the US should have been
more astute in dealing with the railroads in the late 1800s and quite
another to say that the US shouldn't have built any railroads in the
late 1800s.
Dale
Dale Worley Dept. of Math., MIT drw@math.mit.edu
--
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