[704] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Let 100 Backbones Bloom!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Martin Lee Schoffstall)
Thu May 16 12:57:02 1991
To: lws@capybara.comm.wang.com (Lyle Seaman)
Cc: mckenzie@bbn.com, tmn!cook@uunet.uu.net, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 16 May 91 10:04:22 EDT."
Date: Thu, 16 May 91 11:31:18 -0400
From: "Martin Lee Schoffstall" <schoff@psi.com>
> In fact, a large provider would threaten
> its users that if they chose to connect to any other additional providers,
> that they would be dropped.
This is theoretical, lots of "users" have switched in the last 18 months,
I've never heard of any threats. Quite the opposite. However, it may be
because so far we're the equivalent of "mom and pop stores" in the same town.
And we all have to deal/socialize with each other at church, the barbershop, PTA
meeting, etc....
Mitch Kapor has talked to me about the concept of "community" on a BBS, while
people have competing ideas/companies/beliefs they settle down to a modicum
of reasonable interactions, through the cajoling of everyone including
the SYSOP, who has a form of ultimate life/death of kicking the person
off the BBS, which runs counter to the principals why the BBS was setup,
so it is very much a double edged sword. [Maybe our SYSOP is NSF or the
FNC. Maybe we're scared that we can't run the BBS without one?]
A friend (and service competitor) and I had a Interop Post Partum
drink in a hotel lobby one Friday night, he talked about how he was
dealing with a member of his coming to PSINet, and how he was going to
make that happen seamlessly regardless of the situation because it
was too important for them to be "discontinuous". "That is the difference
between a non-profit and a commercial provider...." he said.
Then I related almost the exact same story to him that we had already
done the same thing, someone leaving PSINet et al. He was a little
surprised, that I ruined his point at a minimum [maybe he was shocked
that anyone in their right mind would leave PSINet :-) ]
The Internet is a service/technology that enables a form of community,
possibly similiar to a BBS, other aspects reinforce this, we meet in
Temple (the IETF, where we worship our ancestors, who may or may not
be corporeal), we meet in the barbershop
(Interop, where everyone swaps stories about our manly/womanly
adventures/ideas/plans), we meet at PTA
(FARRNET, where we lie about our children [customers]). This is true
in the US, and from my observations and conversations, in Scandanavia,
through NORDUNET).
When the river rises and threatens the town, we're on the dikes together,
the threat of fire, has us work together in the FireDepartment etc...
We hope that the next generation is better than us.
What does the BIG Supermarket chain bring to the community, with outside
management, and imported workers? I don't know, I've talked to people
who participated in this change in the 20's-40's, there maybe some
perspective there.
Maybe it is time to let loose our Social Sciences Board Member.
Marty
