[8281] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: EDGAR and A-130
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Craig Partridge)
Fri Nov 12 17:34:54 1993
To: gwh@lurnix.com
Cc: Steve Haynes <uunet!research.westlaw.com!shaynes@uunet.uu.net>,
In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 12 Nov 93 13:15:57 -0800.
From: Craig Partridge <craig@aland.bbn.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 93 14:33:13 -0800
What we really have here is a collision of two cultures.
The Internet has classically had an "Information Socialism"
type of culture: if the information exists, it's a good thing
for it to be freely available. West and a number of other
companies are coming into dealing with the Internet from
an "Information Capitalism" point of view: they make their
money off providing information in a limited manner.
There's a third type of culture that's evolving -- folks who make money
by pointing you to the information you want (or getting it for you).
For instance, many schools put copies of doctoral dissertations on line,
or make them available for a nominal cost. But if I want a doctoral
dissertation, I routinely call UMI because I know UMI has copies of
the vast majority of all dissertations and it is convenient to pay UMI
vs spending time tracking down the right office in the given university
where the dissertation came from.
I suspect we're headed for a similar situation on the Internet. It is
extraordinarily cheap to make large amounts of data available on-line.
And I expect within a decade or so, we'll be able to *require* the Govt
make documents available electronically under the FOIA, at which point
anyone can get Govt documents (including court cases) and setup an FTP
site. But the problem will be how to find the right FTP site among
thousands. And I see nothing wrong with people spending money to someone
to help find the FTP site they want.
Craig
