[517] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: addressing needs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Roy Smith)
Fri Apr 5 03:46:58 1991
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 91 13:55:02 EST
From: Roy Smith <roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu>
To: com-priv@psi.com, rma@tsar.cc.rochester.edu
Richard Mandelbaum says:
> those who comment on computers etc being pie-in the sky for the urban
> community in the inner city should actually go out and speak to those
> inner city kids and parents whom they are defending from the danger of
> being exposed to such things as LANS and routers.
Richard,
I respectfully submit that you have missed the point entirely. It's
not that I'm trying to "defend" the K-12 crowd from the dangers of networks,
it simply that I think it's a case of mis-placed priorities.
Remember that corny episode from M*A*S*H where Major Winchester
gives the orphans some fancy candy for Christmas and the old man running the
orphanage sells it on the black market to buy rice and cabbage? It's sort
of the same story here. Come to a meeting of Community Board 8 in Brooklyn
some Thursday night and see what kind of problems get discussed by the
education committee. Who's going to keep those LANs and routers running?
If they don't have the money to keep the after-school basketball program
going, where do you think they will find money to hire a network manager?
