[8346] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: WSJ Technology supplement
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Hughes)
Mon Nov 15 18:44:15 1993
From: dave@oldcolo.com (Dave Hughes)
To: clocke@panix.com (Christopher Locke)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 16:43:29 -0700 (MST)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com (compriv)
In-Reply-To: <199311151621.AA20976@panix.com> from "Christopher Locke" at Nov 15, 93 11:21:03 am
>
> Today's Wall Street Journal carries an entire section devoted to
> online services, the Internet prominent among them.
>
> Is it just me, or did others notice a certain leaning to report
> on the addictive, prurient, aggressive, trivial and
> difficult-to-use aspects of the net? I learned, among other
> things, that gopher is one of the most challenging of Internet
> services, and that it is basically a library card catalog
> system.
>
>.....
Are we seeing confirmation here that the Journal perceives the
> net as competition, and is positioning itself against the
> inevitable attrition of readers it expects to this new medium?
>
> ;-)
>
> chris
>
> I read the entire WSJ section on 'Wired' Technology, and found
it was very uneven. While a few pieces had some solid new information
(like 40% of current PC owners have modems, up from %25 a couple years
ago, and the numbers for gross business and projections) there were
just too many personal-anecdotal pieces. I am getting mighty tired of
reporters for national publications going online, and reporting their
personal reactions to the medium, getting flamed, lost, finding a
nugget or two, and palming that off as reporting. Like a reporter doing
a national story on cocaine by sniffing some and reporting how it
feels.
So whether that is from an editorial nee publisher biases and
fears, or from the lack of reporters who really have been on line widely
enough to have perspective, I don't know. But the LAST place I will
refer people to learn what this medium is all about, is to general national
publications. I thought the WSJ, viewing it from an emerging serious
business sector, would have done better.
Of course virtually no US computer magazines have ever gotton it
right yet either, so I guess its in its nature.
For example, I didn't catch a reference to the current trend in
publications going online, spending serious bucks doing it - as Time and
several others have on AOL - complete with reporter/editor participation in
feedback conferences, LA Times on Prodigy (?), others on CIS etc. A recent
and fast moving trend. Overlooked by the WSJ reporters?
Good coverage of the failure in Europe and Japan to join in,
putting them years behind the US in networking of all types.
But nothing of broad value about the looming 'convergences' of
cable, telco, wireless with the nets. Potentially the biggest revolution.
Just some isolated examples.
