[397] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: a strategic plan [of hippos and turtles]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kent England)
Tue Mar 19 10:42:15 1991
From: kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent England)
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 91 09:41:51 -0500
To: emv@ox.com
In-Reply-To: Mail from 'Edward Vielmetti <emv@ox.com>' dated Fri, 15 Mar 91 13:28:28 EST
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
> Date: Fri, 15 Mar 91 13:28:28 EST
> From: Edward Vielmetti <emv@ox.com>
>
> [with regard to Richard Mandelbaum's recent tome:]
> ... No mention of fee-for-service databases which would
> be created, serviced, and sold by individuals and companies on the
> internet itself; the "regional network as market maker" sections
> posit that these services would be provided by the regional!
> ...
> The whole concent of a "market maker" in the regard strikes like
> something from the days of the Sugar Trust, Standard Oil, OPEC, etc. a
> large, powerful cartel, able to deliver "large blocks of customers"
> (p.55) to transport providers, getting kickbacks and rebates (in the
> form of advantageous prices) from those providers. a powerful
> federation of organizations, each marketing and selling bandwidth as
> well as services and support, with an orderly marketing plan so that
> people don't step on each other too much. it strikes me as being
> very anti-competetive.
>
> Like I say, if this is what FARNET is about, I don't like it.
>
Nobody accuses the hippopotamus of being an ecologic "market
maker" although the hippos literally fuel the African river systems
they live in. It is no surprise that the hippos take little notice of
the turtles and no notice at all of the minnows in their public
communications. But that does not mean that turtles and minnows don't
have their niche. Whether the turtles resent or fear the hippos, I do
not know. If they do, it is to no purpose. Whether the turtles and
minnows worship the hippos, I do not know. If they do, it is to no
purpose.
The ecology of the economy has always included large and
small, as has the ecology of the biosphere. One could no more have
only little companies and entrepreneurs than one could outlaw
elephants and hippos from evolving in nature. One could no more have
only large companies and no entrepreneurs than one could outlaw mice
and rabbits.
--Kent
(Dan Lynch, you listening? Sound familiar? Does this make me
a convert to some Bionomics movement? I hate being trendy. :-)
