[741] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
have your credit card number ready, operators are standing by [IGC]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Edward Vielmetti)
Sun May 26 14:54:57 1991
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
Date: Sun, 26 May 91 14:54:10 EDT
From: Edward Vielmetti <emv@ox.com>
(the only way to find some of these things is to read everything that
you can get your eyes on....)
to those who would question whether it is possible to provide commercial
services over the internet, i would submit that that time has already come.
if you telnet to 'cdp.igc.org' and log in as 'new' you'll be presented
with the opportunity to subscribe to the Institute for Global Communication's
"Peacenet" network. They'll take your credit card number over the net
and sign you up. (For more information on their services, see a recent
article in the usenet newsgroup 'comp.society.development'.) Peacenet is
a world-wide net, with participation from numerous organizations around
the world. Their fees for internet access are a very reasonable $3/hour;
they also have Sprintnet and direct dial connections available.
IGC is a registered non-profit 501(c)(3) outfit, and a member of BARRNET
as far as I can tell; not all of their member organizations are also
not for profit, but none of them make tons of money (at least going on
the basis of what I read.) So this isn't like your local credit bureau
is on the net. But it does seem that the commericialization of the
internet is moving right along.
Is there a list somewhere that chronicles all of the for-pay services
which you can get to via telnet ? com-priv seemed to be the natural
one, but if there are any others i'd be interested in reading them.
--Ed
Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, MSEN Inc. emv@msen.com
